David Trimble’s former press secretary, Martin McNeely, has warned that although he regards the party leader as head and shouldrs above any of his rivals, his real failure to date has been his inability to impose party discipline and drive through the necessary changes to what he calls “an old-style political club”.
He’s worth quoting more fully, because his views are close to a wider feeling within the pro Agreement Unionist camp:
Whilst David Trimble is very good at addressing the wider picture, he needs to heed grassroots concerns. He needs to tap into sceptical concerns in language that anti-Agreement unionists understand. I think this is now an almost impossible task because there is so much enmity in the party. In PR terms, being perceived as ‘pro-Agreement’ is another difficult issue.
Despite inward investment, relative stability and consumer confidence on the High Street, the UUP has failed to capitalise on the feel-good factor some time ago. Other players in the process have let Trimble down badly, but the average unionist has lost faith. It will be very difficult to recover from that. One of the other issues which needed to be addressed, was internal party strategy and organisation.
Interestingly, there is little personal animosity towards Jeffrey Donaldson, but McNeely is sceptical that the anti-Agreement wing will be willing to engage in any compromise to allow them to work with pro-Agreement unionists – a winner takes all scenario.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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