On the campaign trail: NI European elections Might the anti-Sinn Fein push backfire, causing the DUP huge embarrassment, asks Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
Jim Allister exits the DUP Battle Bus and breezes into Larne market in east Antrim. Reservoir Dogs-type DUP backroom boys in dark suits and dark glasses accompany him, handing out campaign literature, establishing a presence.
These are people on a mission which, as well as the clothes and shades, may explain why one woman, taking a leaflet, exclaims, "Oh, I thought you were Mormons."
The candidate himself is in navy blazer and light-coloured slacks, and he, too, is fired with DUP canvassing zeal even though the general mood is light and easy, with Sammy Wilson the warm-up act.
In neighbouring Co Down, the UUP's Jim Nicholson is touring Holywood, Bangor, Comber and Newtownards, but in more leisurely fashion and with less of a retinue. At one stage a rival, the UK Unionist Party's Robert McCartney, heaves into view in Bangor but resists the opportunity to confront Mr Nicholson, disappointing a BBC camera crew who were certain here was the making of a highly televisual verbal scrap.
The general public response is good-natured and positive, although one man says he won't vote for the UUP again until it ditches David Trimble, but even that was said with some cordiality. On the lonely streets of Comber a few couples warmly greet him, and pledge their allegiance. But Mr Nicholson knows he must plough on until polling day on June 10th. "If I got every vote I was promised I'd hardly need to canvass."
From farming stock in Armagh, he's a relaxed individual.
In contrast, Mr Allister, a QC who fell out with the party in 1987 and left politics for the lucrative sanctuary of law only to return to the fold, is a driven man. As he glad-hands relentlessly along the market stalls he is like a snooker ace thinking a couple of shots ahead. He is confident he can easily pot the red - i.e., win a seat in the European Parliament to succeed Ian Paisley. But he is also seeking a big break: he wants to top the poll over Sinn Féin, humiliate David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party and Jim Nicholson, but without actually destroying the UUP candidate.
Two of those canvassed in Larne market, Jim McKay and Billy McNeill, tell him they're not too concerned how the election goes as long as "Sinn Féin are kept out" of government. Mr Allister favours a return to devolution but with Sinn Féin only if the IRA disappears into the mists of history. "I'd rather have direct rule than Sinn Féin rule," he tells the men, which seems to satisfy them.
He accuses Mr Nicholson of making it difficult for DUP supporters to transfer their number two votes to him because he is prepared to "cosy up to an apologist for terrorism in Europe".
Over in Comber Mr Nicholson is taking a bite in a local restaurant. There are smiles and nods for the other diners, but he doesn't push it, having the wit to allow people eat in peace. He is not saying he won't top the poll but knows in his heart he can't. Equally he realises that he is dependent on Mr Allister's transfers to return to Europe for a fourth term. However, he doesn't want to be humiliated by Mr Allister, and responds in kind to the DUP baiting.
He detects DUP hubris. "Winning the Assembly elections in November has to some extent gone to their heads, and a degree of arrogance has got in there." He says Mr Allister's comments about "cosying" up to Sinn Féin are "highly personal and disgusting".
He believes that tactically the DUP is playing it wrong by hammering on about Sinn Féin, and notes how, earlier in the campaign, Mr Allister said nationalists would be "foolish and short-sighted" to vote for Bairbre de Brún.
Bad call, reckons Mr Nicholson. "I do know it will not do any good to advise the nationalist community where they should place their votes. I don't think they will listen to me and I am pretty certain they won't listen to Mr Allister. All he is doing is giving more and more oxygen to Bairbre de Brún."
As for Mr Allister having nothing to do with Ms de Brún in Europe, that is "pure hypocrisy", according to the UUP man. "Jim Allister will sit on the same committees in Brussels as Bairbre de Brún just as the DUP sat with Sinn Féin in the Assembly and on local councils."
Still, he mustn't be too aggressive in his comments. "There is one other candidate and that's Apathy," he acknowledges.
Potentially if enough unionists don't vote in the eastern part of the North, as is often a feature of elections here, and nationalists turn out in force generally, then Ms de Brún and Mr Martin Morgan of the SDLP could deprive Mr Nicholson of his seat. It's a long shot but just about possible. "Maybe the disagreement between Mr Allister and myself may have begun to focus people on the importance of this election. At the end of the day the important thing is that two unionists are returned," says Mr Nicholson, as he puts down his napkin and sets out on the trail again.
He's not taking his flight back to Brussels for granted but believes he will shade it in the end. "Every time I have fought an election it has been behind the big guns of Paisley and Hume. I have always survived, so I think I will survive this time as well." No hubris there.
Over in Larne Mr Allister is playing for bigger stakes: to be poll-topper and to inflict further grievous but non-fatal wounds on the UUP so in elections to come the DUP will be the undisputed monarch of unionism.
He and the DUP view the European Parliament election like a mini-Border poll. It's about there being more of us than them when the votes are counted. That applies principally to the unionist vote outweighing the combined nationalist turnout but also to the DUP return swamping the Ulster Unionist figures.
Ian Paisley and his colleagues in the last election ridiculed the SDLP for their "Stop the DUP" posters which, they taunted, paradoxically promoted the DUP's cause. Couldn't this tactic similarly backfire, making it hugely embarrassing for the DUP if Ms de Brún came home first? As Mr Nicholson has counselled, there are risks in insisting that Ms de Brún's heading the poll would be a "world propaganda coup for Sinn Féin".
There's no option but to take that stance, is Mr Allister's line.
"Sinn Féin's strategy towards a united Ireland is predicated on a number of steps and one of them is that they emerge as the largest party in Northern Ireland.
"We can't have that," he says, as he looks around for more voters to be wooed to his assertive brand of politics.