Mr David Trimble described the Patten report as the "most shoddy piece of work I have seen in my entire life". Last night, speaking on British television, Mr Patten responded: "When he considers that remark . . . I don't think he will regard that as the wisest thing he has ever said."
Mr Trimble said the report lacked any justifications or details of the recommendations it made and failed to argue its case on every single point. "It leaves important matters hanging in the air. There are so many loose ends. I don't think I saw a single paragraph without loose ends."
He said his party was "deeply offended" by the proposed change to the name, badge and flag of the RUC.
"Patten has allowed himself to be diverted into a gratuitous insult to the RUC and the community by stripping the service of its name and badge and flag. What is likely to happen as a result is that the community will be so outraged that it will reject the report as a whole. There is a chance that minds will close and the report will become even more contentious," Mr Trimble said.
He said the only fundamental change needed to the RUC was the recruitment of many more Catholic officers. "In order to achieve that, it is necessary to put an end to the intimidation and social exclusion of Catholics who join the police force."
Mr Trimble said his party would study the report carefully before making any judgment. But the UUP was particularly concerned about the merger of the RUC Special Branch - "the frontline of defence against terrorism on the whole of the British Isles" - with the CID. "The emasculation of Special Branch is, above everything else, what the republican movement wants." UUP security spokesman Mr Ken Maginnis said he was "disappointed" by the report. "My immediate reaction . . . is one of disappointment, both in terms of the content and particularly in terms of presentation. Fundamentally, it lacks flesh on the bones and there is no detailed expansion of many of the bold assertions on the possible time-scale or conditions for implementation."
The Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the proposals were worse than he had feared. They amounted to the disbandment of the RUC.
"Patten says he hasn't changed the RUC, but the word `transformed' - I looked it up in the dictionary - means that the shape, nature and character has to be changed. If that's not change, I'd like to know what is."
Mr Bob McCartney, leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party, described the report as "shoddy and ill-prepared". He condemned the recommendation to allow Sinn Fein two seats on the new policing board, which will replace the Police Authority. "How can it be proposed that the D'Hondt principle be applied to the membership of the new policing board, allowing Sinn Fein two seats, when the Secretary of State and the RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan have both admitted that the IRA was involved in the murder of a Catholic man?"
Mr Cedric Wilson, leader of the Northern Ireland Unionist Party, said the report was "a gratuitous insult to the professional integrity and operational efficiency of the RUC in its defence of the citizens of Northern Ireland over the long years of terrorism".
The loyalist political fringe parties said they were "totally opposed" to the notion of a name change for the RUC and to a ban on flying the Union flag outside RUC stations.
Mr David Adams, of the Ulster Democratic Party, said: "It is an insult to the memory of the RUC officers who gave their lives in defence of this community - and to those who were seriously injured in the furtherance of their duty - to contemplate a name change to that organisation."
He said the banning of the flag from police stations was a "further sop" to republicans.
Mr Billy Hutchinson, of the Progressive Unionist Party, said: "We feel there were some political decisions taken by the Patten Commission in terms of the flags, the name and the badge."