The Ulster Unionists believe the British government will accept an amendment to its Police Bill retaining the words "Royal Ulster Constabulary" in the formal title of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. Mr Ken Maginnis MP, the UUP's principal spokesman on the Bill, last night predicted ministers would do so through gritted teeth.
The Police (Northern Ireland) Bill commenced its committee stage in the Commons yesterday, and the Ulster Unionists immediately signalled a likely showdown with the SDLP and Sinn Fein on the issue of the RUC name change.
A new clause tabled by Mr Maginnis - and understood to have the endorsement of his party leader, Mr David Trimble - reads: "(1) The body of constables known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary shall continue in being as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster Constabulary). (2) The body of constables referred to in (1) above shall be styled for operational purposes the `Police Service of Northern Ireland'."
A Northern Ireland Office spokesman declined to say what Mr Peter Mandelson's attitude might be to the UUP proposal, insisting "we will consider amendments as we go". However, the spokesman repeated the Secretary of State's previous view that "there will be a working title which will be the Police Service of Northern Ireland" and that the legislation now going through parliament would reflect the Patten Commission's view that the RUC is not being disbanded.
Asked what his expectation was of the British government's response to his proposal on the title, Mr Maginnis told The Irish Times: "They [the government] know that nationalists have whipped themselves up into a fury over the name `the Royal Ulster Constabulary'. But the corollary of that is that widespread support for policing cannot be achieved without unionist support. Hence, on this issue, the government is obliged to grit its teeth and to demonstrate some semblance of impartiality on the issue."
At a Westminster press conference yesterday, Sinn Fein Assemblyman Mr Gerry Kelly said the Bill on police reform must be revised as "a matter of urgency" if nationalist confidence in the Good Friday agreement was not to ebb away. He said: "What unionism is doing, helped unfortunately by Peter Mandelson . . . is trying to recreate the RUC, and if they do that they recreate a massive problem."
The SDLP, meanwhile, has tabled 71 amendments to the published Bill, including one running directly counter to the UUP proposal, adopting Mr Patten's recommendation that "the Royal Ulster Constabulary shall be known instead as the Police Service of Northern Ireland".
Speaking during yesterday's opening meeting of the committee, Mr Mallon described the published Bill as "miserable and minimalist" and said it "doesn't measure up" to the new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland promised by the Belfast Agreement.
He said key issues during the committee stage would include questions about the name, emblems and flags to be associated with the new service, the "virtual nullification" of the powers of the Policing Board to order inquiries, the power of the Police Ombudsman and the statutory definition of the role of the Oversight Commissioner.