HE MIGHT be Shankill Road born and bred but Bob McCartney reigns supreme in the leafy suburbs of North Down. Nicknamed the Gold Coast, it's an exclusive area with handsome houses in pretty, seaside towns.
Mr McCartney walks down Main Street, Holywood, on a sparkling sunny day like a king. He is witty, charming and urbane.
Elected MP in a byelection two years ago, he is hoping again to see Off the UUP challenge. His opponent is former British army major, Mr Alan McFarland. Mr McCartney's "negative" attitude to the peace process is dominating the campaign.
The UUP says he is out of touch with an electorate eager for a settlement. Mr McCartney argues that the current talks process is designed to lead to Irish unity. Unionists want peace, he says, but not at any price.
The UUP is the biggest local party but the DUP is standing aside for Mr McCartney. Redrawn boundaries which bring in the UUP stronghold of Donaghadee and lose DUP voting Dundonald have caused slight unease, but he should still win.
A high public profile helps. Everyone knows "Big Bob". He relates well to all. He can discuss the ins and outs of the Framework Document with Holywood's haut monde just as easily as he banters with chain smoking women in the White City estate. He beams when a widow invites him in for tea. "You'll be the first man to cross my door in years," she says.
He roars with laughter as a pensioner lashes out at the Ulster Unionist leader's "shaky" support for the Union. "We call him Mr Tremble down here".
Mr McFarland defends the UUP and is scathing about Mr McCartney: "Bob is great at picking flaws in everything but what positive suggestion has he ever made? He opposed George Mitchell as talks chairman and he wants the fringe loyalists thrown out. You will never get a solution out of Bob."
Mr McFarland would like to see unionists and constitutional nationalists "trying to achieve what is achievable".
A former major in the Royal Tank Regiment, he grew up in Plumbridge, Co Tyrone, the son of a GP. He has served in Germany, Canada, Cyprus and the North. He was a management consultant for the Ministry of Defence before going to work for the UUP in London five years ago.
He recently took over Mr McCartney's former headquarters in Bangor "just as I'm going to take over his seat on May 1st". Mr McCartney says he drove past the office a few nights ago. "I looked in and saw Alan McFarland struggling by himself to lay a carpet. He was a sad, lonely figure. He is no threat to me.
"Forty years in the law have brought me a wealth of experience. I have defended drunks, prosecuted terrorists and fought on behalf of brain damaged.
"But Alan McFarland has led a sheltered life. Everything from bills to living quarters are taken care of by the army. The only people you ever meet are other officers. Alan McFarland has no experience of the real world. He is a political lightweight who would have difficulty deciding whether he wanted tea or coffee."
Mr McFarland isn't short on insults either. North Down no longer wants to be represented by a "maverick", he says. He thinks it strange that a politician who "sold himself as a great, forward thinking pluralist has teamed up with the DUP".
However, he predicts his rival could lose support among fundamentalist DUP supporters. He points to a letter in a local paper criticising the MP for employing a gay rights activist.
Despite the political dangers in socially conservative Northern Ireland, Mr McCartney is fiercely loyal to the worker: "He is one of the kindest human beings I know. He has never harmed anyone in his life. The macho men out to get him aren't fit to wipe his boots."
On the issue of his links with the DUP, Mr McCartney stresses that he shares its stance on the peace process but not always on other issues. He denies any suggestion of sectarianism.
Mr McFarland reckons his opponent's relations with the DUP will harm him.
Mr McCartney finds the whole business highly amusing: "The idea that I'm in Paisley's pocket is laughable. Ask anyone who know me - Bob McCarney has always been his own man.