This poses a dilemma for those within the UUP and especially for North Down Ulster Unionists. Come the next General Election, who do they vote for? Lord Trimble says the Conservatives will stand in every constituency. So we could have the UUP split between voting for Lady Sylvia and their new Tory buddies.

I'd be interested in hearing the views of some local members on that issue.

Having watched their Tory lifeboat drift off into the night, the Ulster Unionist Party, like a man drowning, has begun to clutch wildly at straws in a vain hope of staying politically afloat.

Having realised that a merger between themselves and the Conservatives is pretty much dead in the water they have reached out to, or rather grabbed at, another would be partner.

With their past relationship with the PUP declared null and void in Stormont, and their current courtship with the Conservatives on the rocks, the Ulster Unionists have begun to flirt with the only other Unionist party who would have them, the TUV.

Both parties are desperate to keep their seats at next year's European election, the problem being, only one will succeed.

The antics of these two smaller unionist parties are akin to the black widow spider, which devours her partner after mating. Either the UUP or the TUV will be carried into Brussels on the back of DUP transfers, while the other will be electorally devoured and disappear into the political abyss.

I have little doubt that the DUP, having steered a straight and true course despite much turbulence caused by republicans, will once again see the unionist electorate returning them as the largest party in 2009. While the UUP gave into Sinn Fein, and the TUV have run from them, the DUP are the only unionist party capable of topping the poll, keeping unionism first and putting Sinn Fein firmly in their place.

Tom Smith,
Donaghadee