The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, has strongly rebuked a party colleague who took part in a rally against the talks process with the leaders of the DUP and UK Unionist party outside Belfast on Thursday night.
During the rally, an Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Nelson McCausland, referred to his party leaders as "toy-town politicians" and "political fantasists".
Mr Donaldson said yesterday he and other members of the UUP talks team were not "indulging in self-delusion", but were about the business of promoting the cause of the Union in a positive and constructive manner.
Meanwhile, at yesterday's plenary session of the Forum for Political Dialogue, the DUP called for the establishment of a Northern Ireland parliament. Mr Ian Paisley jnr said the talks process at Stormont had a predetermined outcome, which was the Framework Document. He said the forum, which the SDLP and Sinn Fein have boycotted, was "moving away from that and expressing new ideas, which threatened no one".
The motion was backed by all the parties at the Forum except for the Women's Coalition. A spokeswoman, Ms Pearl Sagar, said the party believed such issues should be discussed as part of the talks process, and not at the forum.
The Women's Coalition has in the past accused the DUP of trying to establish an alternative talks process at the forum.