Where exactly does the Ulster Unionist Party stand?

No political party has a monopoly on scandal. Last week the Ulster Unionist party was deeply embarrassed when a story broke about Danny Kennedy’s special adviser. We should be mindful of the families at the heart of all this. We are only at the start of the election campaign. Who knows what will fall out of any of the other parties’ cupboards before votes are counted? Trouble rarely comes in ones. And boy did they hit home last week for Tom Elliott? Firstly he had Michael McGimpsey’s very divisive announcement on Altnagelvin Hospital which resonated of the sense of hurt over failure in Sixties to locate the university in Derry. Tom Elliott’s ambiguous message on a possible deal with the DUP post election to stop Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister was followed by John McCallister and Basil McCrea declaring they would be comfortable with Mc Guinness though not wishing it, as First Minister. This prompted David Mc Narry to fulminate on the Nolan Show at what he saw as disloyalty to the party leader. In response Mr Elliott who was now faced with the resignation of Terry Wright as vice chairman warned “I don’t see myself in any position serving as deputy first minister to Martin McGuinness.” He added ” What I am not going to be is a Stalinist party. We don’t have the overall control that you would have in a dictatorship.” Internally however the UUP leader was seething. He ‘instructed’ the warring voices of McNarry, Mc Crea and Mc Callister to meet him at 2 o clock. Later the UUP leader said “they accepted they stepped outside the line of protocol in going on the radio.” Mid afternoon I reported an emergency meeting had been scheduled for 6 o clock. This was a meeting of the candidates with some key party members having no awareness of the the get together. Tom Elliott admitted in an interview he ‘brought that meeting forward” on back of outbreak of fires in the party. The meeting turned out to be a mixed blessing for the conflicting philosophies in the party. Fred Cobain, David Mc Narry and Danny Kennedy favour some form of Unionist ‘harmony’ unity with the DUP in event of Sinn Fein emerging as the biggest party. This aspiration suffered a serious setback with the party leader killing dead his commitment to any DUP deal during or after the election to block
Martin Mc Guinness becoming First Minister. He already made it clear he could not see any ‘position’ in which he would serve as deputy first minister under Martin Mc Guinness. This creates a fascinating scenario post election. Firstly should Sinn Fein win the most seats and the Ulster Unionists fail to make a breakthrough then the issue of serving or not serving as deputy first minister doesn’t arise. What would happen should lady luck strike for the Elliott led party? Would he go into opposition? Would he resign as leader and pass the baton to someone else? What if Martin McGuinness followed through with the suggestion that in a majority Sinn Fein Executive he would treat the office of OFMDFM as one office? Could Tom Elliott walk away from such a gesture? As of now however Elliott has buried talk of Unionist unity. The Hatfield Talks are now history.