A single Unionist Party fronted by DUP fundamentalist Nigel Dodds with Ulster Unionist boss Mike Nesbitt as deputy is the only workable solution to cure the political cancer of loyalist disunity.
Nationalism must be delighted at the splits within Unionism – and a single party to is the last thing republicans want.
Even a Unionist Coalition or loose election pact could propel loyalists back to the early 1970s when 'Prod power' ruled.
Yet when unionists put up a unity candidate to win back Fermanagh South Tyrone from trendy Shinner Michelle Gildernew, even with a split nationalist vote, the Prods still could not squeak the seat.
Unionists must stop believing maximising their vote means a selection of pro-Union parties.
They should take a leaf out of the Shinners' book. Republicans educated their voters that the only way to win was to unite behind a single republican party.
Sinn Féin has systematically wiped the Stoops, Stickies, Erps and assorted band of dissidents off the republican map.
For generations since the formation of the Northern state in the 1920s, a single movement known as The Unionist Party dominated Stormont.
That Unionist Party attracted the Protestant aristocracy, Big House upper middle class families, the Fur Coat Brigade, working class loyalists – all held together by the Orange and Black Orders helped out by the Masons.
Occasionally between the early 1920s and late 1960s, a new movement would try and challenge this single party domination, such as the hardline Ulster Protestant League in the 1930s or the 'soft unionist' Northern Ireland Labour Party in the 1950s.
But they all quickly died a death. The Unionist Party's total domination of the Protestant Parliament began to crumble when Ian Paisley senior launched the DUP in 1971.
If Unionism does not embrace the concept of a single party for a pro-Union people, it will eventually result in a united island by default.
The political mutant emerging will be like Scotland – the Six Counties in the Union, but with a republican majority at Stormont, Westminster and in many Northern councils.
While Unionism will never again run a majority rule government at Stormont, it can create majority rule within the overall loyalist family by creating one single, united part. The DUP and UUP must merge to form this Unionist Party.
After all, the current DUP under Robbo has so many former Ulster Unionists in its ranks it is virtually indistinguishable from the UUP in the Trimble era.
The merged Unionist Party must also include those paramilitary parties which champion the causes of the Protestant working class – the pro-UVF Progressive Unionists, and the pro-UDA Ulster Political Research Group.
Just as the old Ulster Monday Club represented the Hard Right of the original Unionist Party, so wee Jimmy Allister's Traditional Unionists can represent such a faction within the new united movement.
Sinn Féin will evolve and rebrand itself within the next decade to become the sole voice for nationalism.
Unionism must return the serve.
