Should our hearts go out to David Trimble? He is the man who delivered unionism to the Good Friday Agreement, the man of whom Gerry Adams said 'Well done, David.' He is the last best hope of persuading unionists that their interests lie with the Good Friday Agreement and that the temptation to wander into the rough embrace of Ian Paisley or elevate the light-weight figure of Jeffrey Donaldson should be resisted. Isn't he?
Certainly pro-Trimble enthusiasm has become something of an article of faith among many parties in the south. David Trimble is the main unionist leader and, they insist, pro-agreement. Accordingly everyone, including northern nationalists, should do everything possible to ensure he stays in office. They should also do what they can to remove the major reason Mr Trimble is not a strong UUP leader: Sinn Féin.
Aversion to the party supported by most nationalists in the north is not solely based on what is sometimes referred to as Sinn Féin's 'attachment to violence', although this is the reason normally cited. The fact is, parties like the Progressive Democrats and Fine Gael and even Labour have an attachment to partition. Should anti-partition sentiment grow in the south, Sinn Féin would be the principal beneficiary and parties like the PDs and Fine Gael the losers. Even Fianna Fail – maybe especially Fianna Fail – has reason to fear the rise of Sinn Féin as a southern republican party.
But you won't get southern politicians saying that. Their problem with Sinn Féin, they insist, is that Sinn Féin's commitment to democracy is incomplete.
The odd thing is, the same parties who call for an end to republican ambiguity see no contradiction when they call with equal enthusiasm for autumn elections in the north to be postponed. Going to the ballot box would be futile, they say, since the DUP and Sinn Féin would emerge as the two dominant parties, and that would take the peace process nowhere. It would also mark the political demise of David Trimble, the last best hope of reasonable unionism, etc, etc.
Now some people have their political demise forced on them and others weave the rope themselves. David Trimble falls into the latter category. Yes he signed the Good Friday Agreement. But his first words after doing so were to tell his followers that the Union was now stronger, which he knew it wasn't. Since that time he has been busy collapsing the executive, blocking meetings of the all-Ireland bodies and denouncing the 50-50 recruitment and the slow development of an impartial police service. In short, he has pandered to the worst elements in unionism rather than rallying those who genuinely wish to make progress. And this is the man northern nationalists are called on to support.
Some people have a very odd idea of reasonable political conduct. The Orange Order and for a long time the Apprentice Boys insisted that they must have a veto over who should represent nationalist residents, and if they didn't, there'd be no talking. Ian Paisley recently went one further, telling republicans they must get rid of the entire Sinn Féin party if they want him and his party to enter talks. And when the assembly and executive were in place, the reasonable moderate Mr Trimble couldn't bring himself to exchange pleasantries, let alone shake hands with republican ministers in his own executive.
We all get the leaders we deserve. If the Ulster Unionist Party wants to prop up a leader who has consistently failed to give his people a lead, that's their affair. If they want to ditch him and elect a leader who'll have no truck with the leading party in nationalism, who will lead them, stepping high, off the cliff and down into oblivion, that is equally their affair.
Most nationalists would marginally prefer the erratic Trimble to the moist-eyed Donaldson or the glowering Burnside, but they accept that it's a matter for unionists, not them. And they realise that trying to manipulate events so that one person rather than another leads your political opponents is at best a waste of time and at worst could boomerang against you.
So non-unionists do well to stay clear of the UUP rumble. If they're going to pull the trapdoor on Trimble, let them get on with it. Nationalist and republican leaders will be civil towards, will sit down and talk with whoever may replace him. That's what mature politicians do. What remains to be seen is, will the political travail within the UUP produce a boy or a man?
