Former Ulster Union-ist MP Willie Ross has challenged the DUP as to what will replace "the Chuckle Brothers" after Ian Paisley steps down in June.
Mr Ross was speaking at a Traditional Unionist Voice dinner in Cookstown on Friday where he asked if the replacement would be "the Brothers Grimm?"
"I doubt it, but we will see a new public face to try to convince the unionist people that there has been fundamental change in governmental practice," said Mr Ross. "I suspect that in the Stormont house there will be a great effort to veil the reality, by more public bluster towards SF/IRA and this will be coupled with abuse and sneers directed at those who dare to expose the facts."
Mr Ross told guests that those who had consented to this "strange political marriage" could not conceal what he believed was the present trend towards synchronisation of "all social and economic policies" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
He said that the DUP and UUP were "powerless" to unilaterally change this, recalling the words of Norman Lamont about the John Major Government "We are in Government but not in power."
If the DUP and UUP really tried to stop the current trend there would be "a most unholy row" which, he believed, would risk the incomes of 108 Assembly members.
"The unionist people do not like what has happened; they don't like what they read in the Press or what appears on the TV screen; and they don't like being told that there is no alternative," said Mr Ross.
"In democratic politics an alternative is not only always possible, it is a vital necessity."
He said those at the dinner believed there was a better way to govern and that it was their task to convince "the betrayed, despondent and angry" that the TUV could, and will, create a better way to "secure the Union".