The Progressive Unionist Party is appealing for DUP transfers to defend both the agreement and the union with Britain, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
The Progressive Unionist Party leader was dubbed "Dictionary Dave" by BBC presenter Gerry Anderson. No great malice was intended, although Mr David Ervine's political detractors complain regularly about his verbal pomposity while supporters praise his eloquence.
Mr Ervine has a distinctive and effective speaking manner. Listening to him in full flight you could imagine the stirring voices of James Dillon and Winston Churchill booming around the Dáil and the House of Commons.
How did he develop this speaking mode? "I don't know," he told The Irish Times at the unveiling of his party's manifesto yesterday. "When I emerged from the shadows (of a UVF past) and entered into politics in 1994 it just flowed out."
Certainly his style has served his party well. Image is important in politics and it was the PUP linked to the UVF, rather than the Ulster Democratic Party with its UDA associations, which took two seats in the Assembly elections of 1998. The UVF was involved in murderous feuding and violence since then, but in relative terms has been more disciplined than the UDA. The same guilt by association has not affected the PUP.
That James Connolly moustached-look of Mr Ervine, together with his communication skills, balanced with the loyalist street credibility of Billy Hutchinson, gained them seats in East Belfast and North Belfast five years ago. These were important victories because for a long time they shored up David Trimble's first minister position, as he faced the threat of the DUP and the rebellion within his party.
The PUP, sporting large party rosettes and smaller poppies, appeared in good heart yesterday. They are campaigning on five core principles: maintaining the union; improving the material well-being of the people of the North; equal access to education; civil, religious and cultural liberty; and ensuring the right to peaceful opposition and protest.
They have 11 candidates and are hoping to increase their overall share of the vote. Realistically, they know the challenge is to hold on to East Belfast and North Belfast.
Securing those two seats is now even more critical for pro- agreement unionism, as the DUP strives to win an overall anti-agreement unionist majority. The DUP is targeting both Mr Ervine's and Mr Hutchinson's seats - those are scalps they would dearly love to sling on their saddles because there is real needle between the two parties.
The DUP won two Assembly seats in East Belfast in 1998 but if the 2001 Westminster figures - when Mr Peter Robinson romped home - still hold it should have enough votes to win an extra seat. Its chief targets are either Mr Ervine's seat or the second Ulster Unionist seat.