Tom Griffin (London, OK): The Conservatives took another step in their nascent alliance with the Ulster Unionist Party today, with a visit to Northern Ireland by David Cameron in support of UUP European election candidate Jim Nicholson.
The previous evening, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson explained the thinking behind the alliance in a talk at West London's Hammersmith Irish Centre.
This is the first time in decades there is someone representing a national party as well as a local party in an election in Northern Ireland. And we intend to go on. We intend to choose joint candidates over the next few months for the general election. The way things are going we might have to accelerate that, and we will see how we we get on.
This is a long term project. There may be bumps on the way. We've seen a few this week with Lady Sylvia's comments. It will not go smoothly, but I think it is a really worthwhile thing to try and do. If we could move Northern Ireland politics away from the age-old stale debate about the great dividing trench, just park that and concentrate on things that really matter to people on a daily basis, I think we would bring in people who've not been involved in politics before.
Lady Sylvia Hermon, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down, presents a major dilemma for the Conservative/UUP alliance. She is the the best-placed Ulster Unionist to win a seat at the next election, but is firmly opposed to standing as a Conservative.
"I have met Sylvia," Paterson said. "We had lunch way back in August or September. She came to some of the autumn meetings. But she's had very difficult personal circumstances, so she's not been quite as closely involved in the talks."
Hermon made her stance public last week in the course of what Paterson suggested was "quite an excitable explanation" of her parliamentary expenses. He nevertheless acknowledged that "There's no question about it. She's made it very clear she doesn't like the arrangement."
Some suggest that the most painless option for the UUP would be to allow Hermon to stand on a straight Ulster Unionist ticket. Paterson gave no indication of such an outcome, instead envisaging that "at the next general election there will be 18 candidates chosen who will stand as Conservatives and Unionists" across Northern Ireland.
"We've said no-one will be shoehorned into the project, but also the project is a lot bigger than one person. I saw today in the cuttings that she's going to support Jim Nicholson which is very good. We will be selecting our parliamentary candidates in some seats quite soon, and we will see how things go."
The Tory/UUP alliance has aroused deep suspicion among some nationalists and republicans who fear it could mean a less even-handed approach from the British government. The Conservatives have argued that the North's cross-community power-sharing arrangements should ultimately be replaced with a voluntary coalition. Paterson made it clear that he sees this a long term goal, to be pursued through the review mechanism in the Good Friday Agreement.
Nationalist fears are unlikely to be easily allayed, but Paterson's frequent trips across the Irish Sea have won him respect from Irish officials who regard him as easy to work with.
Paterson may well be the next Northern Ireland Secretary. If so, the economy could be a key point of friction with the Stormont Assembly. He made clear that the Tories are taking a parsimonious approach to spending commitments in the wake of the financial crisis, and emphasised the need to re-balance the North's economy away from the state sector.
That prospect may be a subject for future debates at Hammersmith, where a series of talks on the impact of the next general election on Northern Ireland continues in June with speakers including Pat Doherty of Sinn Féin, Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionists and journalist and writer Mary Kenny.
