He was not here to deliver edicts, he was here to listen, said Lagan Valley MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson before a private meeting of Ulster Unionist Council delegates last night.
About 50 of the 800 odd delegates eligible to vote had gathered in the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena to hear Mr Donaldson discuss the reasons for his opposition to the Hillsborough deal.
Asked whether he had already formulated an alternative to the deal, he said he would be putting possible ideas to the delegates "to see if there was a proposal that could reach a broader consensus within the party".
There was still an element in the middle who were "very deeply sceptical and very deeply concerned about the consequences if we go with the IRA . . . they are saying we want something else to vote for on Saturday," he said.
Speaking after the meeting, which lasted over three hours, Mr Donaldson would only say it had been very productive.
This was one of a series of meetings the No camp had been holding to hear the views of delegates. Some of the UUC members were tight-lipped about their voting intentions but others were happy to give their views.
One delegate who said he was voting Yes was Cllr Eric Ferguson from Carrickfergus, Chairman of the East Antrim Ulster Unionist Association.. "Guns don't bother me," he said of the decommissioning debate. "I am interested in democracy, I've been a democrat all my life and sometimes you have to go with things you find hard to swallow."
He was here to listen. "You have to take on board what other people are saying," he said.
His son Darin (31), also a member of the Ulster Unionist Council, said he would be voting No.
"For me to vote Yes, the IRA would have had to declare the war is over and if that was the case they would no longer need guns . . . I don't want to see terrorists in government," he said.
He totally disagreed with his father but there were now no rows between them about it. "We don't live in the same house," he said.
As the meeting got under way, Mr Donaldson was asked whether he would walk away from the party if there was a Yes vote on Saturday. He said he had never walked away from the debate in his party and didn't intend to.
"I will continue to argue my case in the hope that in the end on these issues we will get a way forward in which we there can be some sort of consensus in the party." It was important to listen to the grassroots, he added.
The majority of the grassroots who spoke to The Irish Times last night said they would be voting No. "I will be voting against David," said Robin McCay from Coleraine, who added that Mr Trimble appeared to be sidestepping the issues.
"He says he is putting the Provos to the test, I just feel he is letting terrorists into government without them giving up the arms first of all," he said.
Zara Bacon from Portstewart said she would be voting against the deal. "Basically because I feel Sinn Fein haven't fulfilled the policies as laid down in the agreement where they would try to achieve decommissioning by May 22nd, and I feel it would be wrong that we should now go back into government with them." She didn't believe that a No vote would mean a return to violence.
Asked what alternatives could be reached, she laughed and said she didn't have one "unfortunately" and even though the consequences would not be good for the UUP, she would prefer to go back to direct rule.
"A No vote will divide the party even further and we could end up in the backwater and IRA, Sinn Fein, SDLP will be there at the front" she said. "But I'm still going to vote No because I can't go against my own principles".
