Is there no room for people who hold conservative views on issues such as marriage and abortion, asks Paul Tench . Plus Dawn McAvoy takes issue with Stella Creasy’s views on the rights of women in Northern Ireland

It is quite understandable that you challenge the DUP on their past (A troubled past, G2, 28 June) and their conservative attitudes on social issues. But is there no room in the Guardian world for people who hold traditional views on marriage, abortion, euthanasia, keeping Sunday different, women who are happily content to be homemakers, etc?

It is obvious that many people in Northern Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant, hold such traditional views, as do many people in England, Wales and Scotland. The latest survey of British social attitudes (Tolerance of austerity ‘drying up’, 28 June) “identified accelerated growth in socially liberal attitudes towards sex and sexuality”, but that still means there are a lot of people who do not subscribe to those views. We don’t see as much reporting on traditional views in the Guardian as we do on liberal attitudes. We are used to seeing articles attacking and even mocking traditional views, but never any that question, let alone criticise, liberal views.

So the question arises: is there room in the Guardian world for traditional conservative views on social issues?

Paul Tench

Cardiff

• In response to Stella Creasy’s article (Northern Irish women deserve equality. That’s why I’m challenging abortion law, 23 June), we have some points to make:

The definition of progress and equality for women in Northern Ireland presented by Ms Creasy is to have the same access to abortion as women in the rest of the UK. We reject this definition. Women (as well as men) in NI have continually voted to maintain the law here, which recognises and protects the lives of both women and unborn children, because we know that two lives are in existence in every pregnancy and believe that Both Lives Matter. Women and men have voted for individuals and political parties who cross the unionist, nationalist and republican divides precisely because they are “pro-life”. It is not only the DUP who have a “pro-life” perspective.

Dawn McAvoy

Spokesperson, Both Lives Matter

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