A member of the Independent Commission on Policing has criticised "thinking" unionist politicians for focusing on emotive issues such as name and symbol changes rather than addressing the Patten report's recommendations aimed at increasing the democratic accountability of the new police service.
Mr Peter Smith, a former honorary secretary of the Ulster Unionist Party in the early 1980s, said he was surprised unionist politicians had not yet reacted to the political recommendations in the report.
"I would have thought that those recommendations dealing with increasing democratic accountability of the police force by handing control to people with an electoral mandate would have struck a chord among thinking unionist politicians," Mr Smith, a Belfast QC, told a conference on the Patten report, organised by the Committee on the Administration of Justice, in Belfast yesterday.
The Patten report recommends that the new Northern Ireland police service be controlled by a police board consisting of 10 politicians drawn from the Assembly parties according to the d'Hondt system and nine Independent members.
Mr Smith described the proposals as significant and said they should "more than balance the badge and flag issues.
"It is significant and very sad that there is not a single Ulster Unionist representative at this meeting here today."
The organisers pointed out that Mr Steven King, an adviser to the Ulster Unionist deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, had been due to attend but had sent his apologies.
Mr Smith said he recognised that the proposed name and symbol change had led to accusations the commission was not "sufficiently sensitive to the RUC's sacrifices".
Dr Maurice Hayes, another member of the Patten Commission, said the commission had proposed the name change with "deep thought and concern" for the hurt it would cause. Meanwhile, the UK Unionist leader, Mr Bob McCartney said the Patten recommendations, if implemented in their entirety, would destroy police morale. Speaking at a public meeting in Bangor, Co Down, Mr McCartney called on all pro-Union parties to unite in their opposition to the report.