The Irish and British governments must push the DUP and Sinn Féin very hard in the Scotland talks if a decade of hard work by others is not to be squandered, writes Sir Reg Empey.
The Ulster Unionist Party exists to maintain and promote the Union. This is what we have been doing now for over 100 years. To achieve this goal, we must make Northern Ireland work for everyone.
We set out on a course of action over 10 years ago and now it seems that the pioneering work that we began, the risks we took and the strategy that we adopted, are reaching fruition.
Following the publication of the IMC report and looking forward to the talks in Scotland, the pressure now moves to Sinn Féin to complete the journey to exclusively peaceful means through a wholehearted endorsement of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. In the past we did much of the heavy lifting on contentious issues for unionism, now it is long overdue for Sinn Féin to do the heavy lifting on policing.
In the past the process has faltered and spluttered because Sinn Féin have tried to "bowl in short". The decommissioning issue was an example of this.
The half-way house option which Sinn Féin adopted on arms and were let away with by the British and Irish governments is not going to work for them on policing. It either supports the police or it doesn't.
As much as Sinn Féin may wish otherwise, there is room for only one police service in Northern Ireland and private armies or former prisoners won't fit into that scenario.
I sincerely hope it completes the journey which has taken so long and caused so many avoidable tragedies and unnecessary loss of life. The sooner this happens the better. However it seems that there are some parties that are already coming up with excuses to avoid doing a deal at St Andrews to break the deadlock.
Since the 2005 Westminster elections, the DUP has been beating its chests and hailing a new dawn where "pushover" unionism no longer existed. You would think DUP members were brimming with confidence. But there is a fundamental dichotomy facing the DUP.
In order for Ian Paisley to maintain some form of control and influence over the unionist community, he needed one crucial commodity: fear. This fear manifested itself through his number one soundbite: "sell-out".
"Sell-out" incorporated our government trying to sell us out, my own party had sold out, the agreement was a sell-out. This ability to tap into unionism's "fear" has served Ian Paisley and his agenda for the last 40 years.
Now, ironically, this same fear that was so successful for the DUP paralyses its own thinking. How can a party that sat on the sidelines for so long and criticised every single unionist initiative now present a few operational details and minor tweaks to the agreement as being a "fair deal"? This is the gamble that it has to take and ultimately for the DUP it will come down to presentation.
The stalling, hardballing and supposed grass-roots unionist consultation are merely window-dressing for the inevitable - powersharing with Sinn Féin.
This will be such a massive shift in position for a party that promised to "smash Sinn Féin" that it is little wonder that they will want to play it as long as possible.
That is why a real, dedicated and focused push from the prime minister, secretary of state and Irish government is needed. Otherwise we may well squander the years of effort, blood, sweat and tears that my party and others have invested since 1996 and indeed before.
We would also be squandering the opportunity to re-establish a devolved Assembly and Executive and ensure that Northern Ireland, like our Scottish and Welsh counterparts within the Union, have local decision-makers making local decisions.
Nobody can argue that there has not been a level of commitment shown to us in Northern Ireland unlike any shown in the recent past by the prime minister and Taoiseach; however, the implementation and holding to account of the commitments given by some parties have not been what they should have been.
Because of this lack of holding to account, the secretary of state should understand the scepticism that has existed about the November 24th deadline. Never before in this process has any deadline been kept; look at decommissioning, for example.
The UUP believes, however, that despite the past, now is the time to decide whether or not it is possible to re-establish Stormont. We have had long enough, over 10 years, and we will make our decision when we see everything that is on the table.
There must be no procrastination at St Andrews or allowing parties to walk away saying that what they will not do in November, they will be able to do in the spring. This government strategy, which was a failure in the past, will lead to failure again.
That's why I repeat the importance of getting it right this time once and for all.
• Sir Reg Empey is leader of the Ulster Unionist Party