LAURENCE MARLEY,
Sir, - When David Trimble was elected leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, his party's journal, Ulster Review (1995-96), signalled the beginning of what it termed "new unionism": "inclusive", "pluralist", "progressive". However, none of these traits has been reflected in the leadership of Mr Trimble.
In fact, his leadership has been marked more by a singular lack of political imagination and nerve. His speech in March, in which he referred to the Republic as a "pathetic", "sectarian" state, could easily have been written by Basil Brooke. And his attempts to outstrip the DUP and his own anti-Agreement unionists in talking up crises is anything but progressive.
The challenge of the DUP is what really preoccupies Mr Trimble most at present. The Ulster Unionist Party lost three Westminster seats to the DUP last year and all the indications now are that Trimble will probably collapse the Agreement's institutions rather than face the DUP in next May's assembly elections. This, however, will constitute something more than a mere crisis. Once the Stormont executive is dissolved it cannot simply be reconstituted, because Mr Trimble no longer commands a majority of unionist votes in the assembly. Consequently, he and the Deputy First Minister, Mark Durkan, cannot be re-elected.
The demise of the executive would be a serious development, not least because the institutions are in fact working. As Mark Durkan said in his article in your edition of July 24th, "the Executive and the Assembly. . .have agreed budgets, new laws and a programme for government".
Of course, the real crisis is within unionism itself, and the apparent determination to condemn the political process to endless instability certainly does not reflect a new development in unionism but a political perspective no different to that which collapsed the Sunningdale agreement almost 30 years ago. - Yours, etc.,
LAURENCE MARLEY, Clybaun Road, Knocknacarra, Galway.