SHOCK, horror. The Ulster Unionists appeared willing to exploit the Prime Minister's difficulty in the Commons on Monday night. By Tory accounts, Mr David Trimble and his colleagues were prepared to trade their votes on the Scott report for assurances on Northern Ireland policy.
It seems Mr Major, Mr Michael Heseltine and co were affronted, by the idea. Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Northern Ireland Secretary, was positively indignant. Attesting to this government's virtue, he let it be known they had rejected offers of "clandestine deals".
The scramble for the moral high ground might have been more impressive had it not followed Mr Robin Cook's demolition job on the Commons floor. His wounding words about a government without shame were presumably still ringing in the ears of Sir Patrick and Mr Michael Ancram as they took their revenge on the UUP.
As it was, the morning after found the parties wading through what Mr Paddy Ashdown termed "murky waters". And what worried the Liberal Democrat leader was not that Mr Major had rejected a deal with Mr David Trimble but that he might have reached an understanding with Dr Paisley about the system for elections in the North.
Mr Trimble, the UUP leader, hotly denied the government's version of events in the hours preceding the Commons vote which Mr Major survived courtesy of the three DUP abstentions.
Mr Trimble insists that any meetings he had with ministers (and he saw Mr Major twice) were at their request. He confirmed Mr Michael Heseltine's account of his final meeting with Mr Major (attended also by Conservative chairman Dr Brian Mawhinney) 45 minutes before, the 10 p.m. division. Mr Heseltine says "What he [the Prime Minister] started by saying was I must tell you I have done no deal with Dr Paisley and I can do no deal with you. The reason for the meeting was to make it absolutely clear that there had been no deal with the DUP."
But Mr Trimble rejected claims that he had offered to prop up the government during "a stormy meeting" with Mr Majors. He told a BBC interviewer "That is pure invention. The minister who used the word `stormy' lied. If you wish to identify him to me then I shall describe him as a liar." He added "I suspect that the Northern Ireland Office does have something to hide which they're trying to cover up by attacking us.
Dr Paisley scorned Mr Trimble's assertion that the UUP had judged Scott on its merits, said they'd plainly attempted to secure a party advantage and cheerfully awaited Northern Ireland's "condemnation of them".
And the picture was confused further by conflicting accounts of a meeting on Monday between the Tory chief whip Alistair Goodlad and the Rev Martin Smyth of the UUP. Mr Smyth confirmed yesterday the issue of elections in the North was discussed. But he and Mr Trimble deny government suggestions that they offered support for the government over the longer term of this parliamentary session. The UUP derided the suggestion as "not real politics". And that, at, has the ring of truth.
Mr Trimble would be a fool to commit himself to this government until the election date of Mr Major's choosing. And the Prime Minister would recognise such an offer for the impostor it would be.
Time and circumstance will govern Mr Trimble's decision should he ever hold the ace card in a confidence vote. In the meantime, the UUP leader will be pleased with his Monday night's work.
He ended up where he'd personally always wanted to be in the opposition lobby voting against the government. He brought his party colleagues with him, dispelling government hopes that the legacy of last autumn's leadership contest guarantees a divided UUP parliamentary party. He has dented the perception that Mr Major's conduct of the process is governed by the need to secure UUP support in the Commons. And he has fired a warning shot across Mr Major's bows.
There was some consensus yesterday that Mr Trimble had over played his hand. But that is to ignore that Mr James Molyneaux's successor was elected to have a less trusting relationship with Mr Major.
And while the UUP did not gain the assurances it sought on Monday about proximity talks, the form of elected body and nature of elections, the wording of a possible referendum Sir Patrick's letter to Mr Ken Maginnis may have offered the party enough reassurance to be going on with.
Sir Patrick made it clear these would be matters for agreement by the parties in the new talks which it is hoped will flow from an Anglo Irish summit meeting. Senior unionists yesterday saw confirmation that any agreed Anglo Irish communique would be less specific than Dublin has been pressing for.
Mr Trimble has much to say one the specifics of any process designed to reinstate the ceasefire and bring Sinn Fein to the talks table. He knows the terms which Mr Major has specified. He has the assurance that, even if he wished to change course, Mr Major cannot deliver him to the point of negotiation e understands, as does Mr Major and Dr Paisley is an unlikely government ally. And he appreciates as does Mr Major that his government faces many more nights on the knife edge between now and its preferred election date.