Letter: Sinn Fein victory?

The exclusion of Sinn Fein from the Stormont talks on the basis of two disputed killings, when for weeks the RUC had evidence of UDA involvement in the killing of nearly half a dozen nationalists before the Ulster Democratic Party was even considered for exclusion, will appear to the majority of the nationalist community as unjust and as a flimsy pretext for the exclusion of many of their political aspirations from the process.

This will raise the question of whether the SDLP supports this exclusion and place it in the position of either having to do so or move closer to Sinn Fein's position. Do the two governments want to hand Sinn Fein electoral success against the SDLP on a platter?

J P MURPHY

Birmingham