Mr David Trimble is displaying a tactical adroitness by not defining his position on the latest proposals to resolve the linked issues of devolution and decommissioning until later in the week. Wise heads within the Unionist party know that what is on offer is as good as they will get. But whatever stance the leader may adopt, there will be those who will decry it as a sell-out. By declining to set out his proposals until closer to Saturday's meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, Mr Trimble denies his enemies a fixed target.
It may appear incomprehensible that the deal worked out at Downing Street and Hillsborough less than two weeks ago to re-establish the Northern political institutions and to put IRA weapons "verifiably beyond use" could founder on the issue of police badges and nomenclature. Many unionists - those active in politics and otherwise - will acknowledge privately that the matter is of no substantive significance. A thoughtful editorial in the News Letter during the week, argued that professional police officers can, and will, rise above the debate. But the wish to preserve the RUC's name and symbols is the unionist equivalent of republicans' insistence that they be spared the "surrender" of decommissioning.
If the Unionists cannot get off the hook of their own making of last February, they may finally and irretrievably lose international support and find themselves politically isolated while the republicans hold the high moral ground. But it is now incumbent upon the other participants in the peace process to give whatever assistance they can to avoid this. Mr Trimble must be given the wherewithal to make a good case to the Ulster Unionist Council on Saturday that the honour of the RUC is being preserved.
The Government, the SDLP, and Sinn Fein, have taken the common position that the recommendations of the Patten report must be implemented without dilution and in full. They are right. In a new Northern Ireland, the police service must be visibly the property or the inheritance of neither community. It would be as wrong to have it styled the "Republican Ulster Constabulary" as it would be to have it continue as the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Yet there is a great deal that could be done to affirm the debt which is owed by everyone on these islands to a police force which has operated over many years with bravery and professionalism. The Patten report itself drew attention to the scandalous treatment of RUC families whose loved ones have died or suffered injuries in the Troubles. It also underlined the niggardly approach taken by the authorities to the needs of RUC officers left disabled or traumatised in the course of their duties.
Too little has been heard from either government about putting this situation to rights. A generous and comprehensive addition to existing provisions would be of much more practical and tangible benefit to the police officers and their families whom some unionists say they wish to cherish with badges and titles. It would also be appropriate for the British government to come forward with suitable proposals for a permanent and tangible memorial to the RUC - recognising both the sacrifice of its casualties and the enormous contribution of courage and public service made by its membership in general. If symbolism is important in this debate - and it clearly is - the talents of Ulster artists, designers and builders could be imaginatively engaged in such a project.
Mr Gerry Adams has warned over the weekend against doing "side deals" with the unionists. The real-politik of the situation demands that Mr Trimble should not go empty-handed before his council on Saturday. But it would be at variance with the spirit of the Belfast Agreement which aims at an entirely new model of public life in Northern Ireland, if there were to be back-sliding on Patten.