DAVID TRIMBLE made a scathing attack at the weekend on "loudmouth unionists" whom he accused of damaging the unionist cause. The Ulster Unionist Party leader also claimed that the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, was responsible for stalling the multi party talks.
In sharp reference to the Democratic Unionist Party and the UK Unionist Party, Mr Trimble said he and his party would be falsely accused by other unionists of "selling out" the Union in the forthcoming election campaign.
"I disagree with the McCartneys and the Paisleys," he told the annual general meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, governing body of the UUP.
"Their actions and attitudes have been counterproductive. They have let nationalists off the hook, they have driven London into the arms of Dublin," he said.
"The reasonable case we present is being obscured by aggressive, loudmouth unionists. This is not in the interests of the Union. It is not what unionists want."
While it appeared an obvious attack on unionists such as the Rev Ian Paisley, the UUP leader was more circumspect when asked on RTE yesterday if this was a deliberate reference to the DUP leader. "It was a general reference and I leave it to other people to consider whether any particular individuals come within that phrase," he said.
However, in his speech in Belfast on Saturday, there was no disguising who his targets were. "Our job is to promote the Union at home and abroad. Unfortunately the methods of those who denigrate us continue to do damage to the Union at home, in the rest of the United Kingdom and elsewhere."
The criticisms UUP members would hear at this election were heard at every election. "Remember the Ulster Hall antics, the Carson trail, the road to Clontibret, wandering up and down hills waving bits of paper. For 30 years, these slogans and, pantomimes halve delivered nothing.
"The enemy is not fellow unionists, however misguided. It is militant violent republicanism," he added. We must warn against supporting them, but we must avoid uncharitable conduct towards them. We should not adopt their, tactic of personal denigration.
Mr Trimble, speaking on RTE's This Week, accused the Tanaiste of obstructing progress at the multiparty talks. He said the Tanaiste had adopted "a very negative position" at the talks.
"He has not been prepared to move one iota. He has put forward proposals with regard to how to address decommissioning that were obviously unacceptable to all other parties with the possible exception of the SDLP, and has in discussion refused to engage in any serious exchanges."
Mr Spring presented a "problem" which might be resolved "by a change in the Irish Government", he added.
As one of the political ways for ward, Mr Trimble proposed a new assembly based on proportionality modelled on the European Parliament which would allow all parties to get a "fair share" of positions such as chairmanships and memberships of committees.
"We still have to crack the big problem creating a new Northern Ireland assembly," he said.
"It would provide a framework within which there could be an appropriate cross frontier relationship, based on pragmatic considerations of mutual benefit and not on a political agenda.
"This could meet the nationalist sense of place but, by locating the relationship within the context of the islands as a whole, it would not threaten the British identity. It would, unlike the present arrangement, correspond to real needs and enjoy real support," said Mr Trimble.
His attack on the DUP prompted an angry response from the party's deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, who said Mr Trimble was unfit for leadership. Mr Trimble's speech on Saturday demonstrated "the boy David to be verbally incontinent and politically moribund", he said.
Mr Trimble's broadside was "vile, vicious and venomous", said Mr Robinson.
The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, said Mr Trimble's proposal for a new assembly was a dead duck. "There can be and will be no return to Stormont " he said.
We will not accept the second class status quo which the unionist leaderships and some elements within the British political establishment still believe exists, nor will we tolerate any return to the majoritarian domination of unionism which a Stormont assembly would clearly seek to impose, he added.
