THE DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, and Mr David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) both spoke a good election yesterday. But there was no doubting which party emerged top of the unionist heap.
The unionist family entered the election with 13 Westminster seats out of 17. With an additional 18th constituency in this election unionists emerged with the same number of seats.
The UUP increased its House of Commons representation from nine to 10, but the Rev William McCrea bade farewell to Westminster, leaving him more time to concentrate on local government and gospel singing, and leaving the DUP with only two seats.
The more moderate of the two main unionist parties made actual and psychological gains which Mr Trimble was quick to focus upon. The UUP's overall performance and the additional seat it took in West Tyrone proved it was the most powerful force in unionism, he said.
He was sure the overall result bore a message for the DUP, and to a lesser extent for the smaller UK Unionist Party whose leader, Mr Robert McCartney, held his seat after an initial scare.
Mr Trimble's message was that he is the top dog in unionism.
"The Ulster Party is not just the largest party but within unionism it is the senior party," he said. "Those people who rightly call for a united unionism have to realise that the democratic voice has spoken, and they ought to take their lead from the Ulster Unionist Party. I look forward to that day happening."
The UUP even had the audacity to infuriate Dr Paisley in his own lair. Mr James Leslie for the UUP polled a highly respectable 10,921 votes in North Antrim reducing the DUP leader's majority by more than 4 per cent.
But Dr Paisley would not tolerate any talk of the DUP on the slide. He said the overall result was a victory for unionism and for his not an inch refusal to accept any tampering with the union. Inwardly though he knows that yesterday was disappointing.
The most dramatic failure for unionism was in Mid Ulster the greatest success was in West Tyrone where again the UUP was in the ascendant.
Mr Martin McGuinness ousted the bete noir of nationalists, Mr McCrea, in MidUlster. But in West Tyrone there was no such hate figure to stir nationalists into tactical voting.
Mr McCrea put as brave a face as possible on his defeat. There was always a nationalist majority in Mid Ulster; it was inevitable that nationalists had to get him someday, and yesterday was the day.
He didn't accept that his appearance with jailed loyalist, Billy Wright, sealed his electoral fate.
Mr William Thompson, a "decent man" as many nationalists acknowledged, stole West Tyrone for the UUP from the SDLP and Sinn Fein whose vote was almost evenly divided. He hadn't antagonised nationalists.
It was left to Mr Peter Robinson, DUP deputy leader, to defend the honour of the party. Failure - what failure? was his line. The DUP recorded 13.1 per cent of the vote in the last Westminster election. Yesterday, it received 13.6 per cent, so therefore talk of failure was nothing more than media bias.
He argued his case trenchantly and precisely but nonetheless he couldn't mask the reality that the DUP now has the same number of seats as Sinn Fein. At least he drew satisfaction from imperiously seeing off Mr Reg Empey of the UUP in East Belfast.
His wife, Iris, who was trying to oust Mr John Taylor in Strangford, had no luck. Mr Taylor held the seat but with a majority reduced from just under 9,000 to 6,000.
Where there was any nationalist threat to unionism the UUP and DUP observed a pact but where unionists were safe the UUP and the DUP slugged it out.
If this policy is followed next time it could mean that Mr Ken Maginnis of the UUP could face a DUP opponent. His total vote was more than the combined vote of Sinn Fein and the SDLP, which means that even if there had been an agreed nationalist candidate he or she probably would still not have won.
Mr Trimble's vote could be viewed as a vote for moderation but whether that is the case is really up to him. He and his fellow unionists must now stand without the added support of effectively maintaining the balance of power in Westminster.
If there is real business to be done it must be done with the parties in Northern Ireland. His vote also could be interpreted as a message to mainstream unionism to engage more readily in inclusive talks, even if that means negotiating with Sinn Fein following an IRA ceasefire.
The talks resume in early June and, based on the previous talks it is very difficult to predict whether Mr Trimble would take some gambles and, perhaps jesuitically, sideline decommissioning to allow Sinn Fein into the talks. Conflicting signals have come from the UUP throughout the process.
At least when the talks resume there will be no more elections in the immediate future and Mr Trimble should be more confident, having shaken the DUP monkey off his back, and having emphatically established that he is the unionist supremo.
