I am writing in reply to Johnny Andrews's letter (Write Back, February 9), in which he claims that the Conservative and Unionist Party will be able to achieve more for a shared future than what the Alliance Party has achieved.

Given that his 'new' party decided to include the word 'Unionist' in the title, I am guessing that it will not be able to achieve the level of cross-community support that Alliance has achieved over the last four decades.

Under David Ford's leadership, the Department of Justice has worked to allow a peace wall to be opened in north Belfast.

Since he became minister, no new peace wall has been built, or existing one extended. This is a marked change of policy from previous direct-rule ministers.

The Executive can, and must, do more to tackle the division and sectarianism that permeates our society. Alliance will be at the forefront of doing so.

Of course, in order to actually deliver on a shared future, a party has to win seats at elections.

At the last election, the Alliance Party had eight MLAs and 44 councillors elected to push for a shared future. The Conservatives had none.

I have no reason to believe that a rebranded version of the same party will achieve much more than that in the future.

CLLR MICHAEL BOWER (ALL)

North Down Borough Council

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