May I add a contemporary note to Ian Jack’s typically thoughtful piece on Ulster politics (Opinion, 17 June)? In the late 1960s I was constituency secretary of the west Belfast branch of the Northern Ireland Labour party. In the 1950s and mid-60s the party had at times been taking almost 40% of votes in Belfast across the sectarian divide. As the Troubles deepened, UK Labour failed to support its beleaguered democratic socialist partner, and turned towards allying with Irish nationalist parties, with the consequences we now see for progressive politics. Today, UK Labour, supposedly committed to equality, still refuses to let our members in Northern Ireland stand candidates, even in local elections. We surely cannot prefer to see seats won by either the DUP or Sinn Féin?

Tom Wylie

Oxford