In the late 1980s, before I stopped writing about the North, I was stressing the fundamental importance of the policing arrangements in a Northern settlement within the UK.

Policing is the area where the state regularly touches the citizen. It can be generally effective only if the police, in their political symbolism and their personnel, are reasonably representative of the society - or at least not the contrary.

I argued then that for this to be possible in the ethnically plural society of Northern Ireland, it would be necessary to replace the "Irish" structural model as represented by the RUC and the Garda Siochana - a unitary police force for the entire territory - with the "British" model of collaborating constabularies.

England has 39 of these, Scotland eight, Wales four. Northern Ireland, with only one police force, is an anomaly in the UK.

The Patten report, while aiming "to make the police more representative of the society", recommended that the North continues to have a unitary structure. But the unionists are opposed to the Patten proposals, and the nationalist parties are refusing to accept Westminster's version of the Patten scheme.

In these circumstances, it may be possible to cut the Gordian knot by amending Patten, superficially, on the British model - that is to say, along regional lines.

As it happens, "regional police services" in the North were suggested to the Patten Commission (report, 12.7) and brusquely rejected. "A multiplicity of police services would not lead to effective or efficient policing" (12.8).

"Multiplicity" is a testily derogatory way of referring to the two, or at most three, constabularies which might be contemplated. Patten fails in fact to cite adequate grounds for departing from the British norm.

This omission is all the more striking given that Northern Ireland has two native communities attached to different national histories and flaunting different national symbolisms. The communities have, moreover, regional and local predominances: British unionists in the east; Irish nationalists in the west and south; large areas of Belfast virtually exclusive to one or other community.

There was an "obvious" way of making the police service "more representative" of that society. Instead, Patten chose a method which is, on the face of it, odd.

He recommended that in matters of symbolism - name, flag, badges and emblems - the police should cease to be representative of the unionists, and in respect of personnel should be much less so than hitherto.

The name would be changed from RUC to the Northern Ireland Police Service. British symbolism would be removed from its badges and emblems. Its stations would cease to fly the Union Jack. And in the foreseeable future, Protestants, instead of making up more than 90 per cent of the police personnel, would constitute only about 50 per cent. The rest would be Catholics, nationalists, republicans and "others".

For the nationalists, on the other hand, Patten would make the police more representative with respect to personnel, while removing the offensively unrepresentative symbolism of the RUC.

In this key matter of representativeness, that was the deal offered by Patten. The nationalists found it satisfactory, the unionists decidedly and understandably not.

At issue now is the British government's version of Patten. The nationalists are opposing it on the grounds that it is not clear about removing the unrepresentative symbols, and that its provisions for democratic supervision are unsatisfactory. The unionists are rejecting it mainly because it threatens them with a police force which no longer represents them.

SO, one way or other, both sides are motivated in their opposition - the nationalists partly, the unionists mainly - by aversion to the prospect of an unrepresentative police force.

If a formula could be found to reduce this angst decisively, the way would be open for negotiation, and perhaps a common front, with regard to matters of detail and democratic supervision.

Is it possible that such a formula might be found in a watered-down version of regional and local policing, British-style?

For the sake of argument, consider the following possible arrangements. With respect to personnel, the Patten objective of a roughly 5050 split between the communities is retained. In Limavady and Coleraine districts and generally east of the Bann, the Northern Ireland Police Service operates under the name of Royal Ulster Constabulary, and retains the other British symbols used hitherto by the RUC.

In the rest of Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Police Service operates under that name and the Patten proposals relating to political symbolism are fully implemented.

In Belfast the four police sub-districts proposed by Patten are divided equally between the two modes of policing I have just described.

Desmond Fennell's latest book is The Post-western Condition: Between Chaos and Civilisation.