Mr Trimble’s opponents have accepted his victory, but all know there will be a next time, writes
Paul Tanney
, in Belfast
"Do you come here often?" asked the poster advertising an upcoming event at the Waterfont Hall.
The answer from most of the delegates at today’s Ulster Unionist Council meeting would have been "too often," but they will be back. As he always has, Mr Trimble carried the day, this time with a slightly increased, but hardly massive, vote of 56 per cent.
The council will hold its annual general meeting in March, at which time Mr Trimble will present a progress report on decommissioning and other issues such as emblems.
No deadlines, no threats, nothing to threaten the peace process or disturb the Christmases of senior civil servants and Secretaries of State.
Had the motion penned by Messrs Burnside and Donaldson been passed the process would have been thrown into turmoil yet again.
A deadline of February would have been set for the reintroduction of the royal prefix for the North’s police service, as well as guarantees about the flying of flags and the retention of the royal coat of arms in courts.
If such measures were not forthcoming, and it is very difficult to see either Whitehall or Dublin, let alone the nationalist parties, agreeing to them, unionist ministers would have withdrawn from the north south institutions, threatening the entire architecture of the Belfast Agreement.
The motion was described by one commentator as a Trojan Horse because it appeared to be a compromise on an earlier motion moved by the party’s honorary secretary, Ms Arlene Foster calling for a March deadline to be imposed for complete decommissioning.
Mr Trimble told the meeting the Burnside motion was no compromise and by about midday it seemed very likely he had persuaded the majority of delegates that this was the case.
The vote of 56 per cent in favour of Mr Trimble was not quite a ringing endorsement however.
Although clearly happy to have kept control of his party policy Mr Trimble said the debate had highlighted real concerns in the party, in turn reflecting those in the unionist community. He expected that debate within the party about decommissioning and republican participation in government would continue and with it meeting s at the Waterfront.
"Until these issues are resolved satisfactorily there will continue to be concerns,’’ he said.
When asked if he felt vindicated, Mr Trimble said that word had too much of an air of finality. "We’ve taken another step down the road but we still have more work to be done,’’ he said.
Mr Burnside said the issue of symbols would not go away and said there was a feeling within unionism that its identity was being stripped away.
"That’s not over, we’re losing on the symbols issue, we’re losing our British identity and I think you are going to see a big campaign happening in unionism to have equal citizenship again. The old slogan is going to come out, and I am going to push it, that we are now second class citizens,’’ he said
Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said he would support Mr Trimble’s leadership but added at the March meting he and others would be "be able to look at what progress has been made on decommissioning."
Mr Donaldson said republicans would be wrong to think the issue of decommissioning had gone away. "If they think they are off the hook now, they need to think again," he said.