The Yes campaign has come through "a wobbly bit" and the tide is now turning in its favour, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday. He said two opinion polls this week indicated that close to 70 per cent of people in the North would support the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Trimble said his joint appearance with Mr John Hume at the Waterfront Hall on Tuesday night showed what the future could be like.
Holding a picture of the two men on stage with Bono, he said: "This is the message which last night achieved. They say a picture says a thousand words, and that is all there is to say. That, I think, is the way the tide is going in this respect."
The picture, he said, showed that "we can work together for the future, that we can overcome the problems". He wanted to draw attention to the contrast between "the happy faces at the Waterfront" and "the sour faces of Paisley and McCartney sneering at the young people".
Asked if he believed the Yes campaign was making advances, he referred to opinion polls in the Daily Telegraph on Monday and in yesterday's Irish Independent, indicating a Yes vote of close to 70 per cent. Admitting there was "a wobbly bit" last week, he said this probably happened on all election campaigns.
"All the evidence coming to us shows that people are over it, that they can see how Sinn Fein were trying to manipulate them into a No vote, and they know that a No vote offers nothing," he said.
"A Yes vote will give us in Northern Ireland, all of us, control over our local affairs for the first time in 26 years, and on a better basis than before, because it will be on a basis which we will work together with moderate nationalists for the good of everybody."
He said people in the UUP had confidence in themselves and in their ability to work to overcome the problems. The future was in their hands and they would take responsibility for themselves. He said there was no alternative and the agreement was a safe bet. Earlier the assistant treasurer of the UUP, Ms May Steele, said there was evidence that women made up a large proportion of the "don't knows". She appealed to unionist women to think of their children's and their grandchildren's future.