Ulster Unionist Council centenary meeting: The UUP will not re-enter a Stormont executive alongside Sinn Féin until it has proven that it has met acceptable democratic standards and has no "private army", party leader David Trimble told the centenary meeting of his ruling Ulster Unionist Council.
In a speech that depicted the party as honourable and successful in the unionist cause, Mr Trimble lambasted the DUP, and accused the Irish and British governments of breaking the Belfast Agreement.
He called for the Taoiseach to give moral leadership to nationalism, and encouraged both him and the British prime minister,Tony Blair, to rethink their stance on "inclusivity", accusing them of holding open the door to Sinn Féin despite paramilitary and criminal activity by the IRA.
Mr Trimble called for the Northern parties in the Assembly to be released from what he called the "straitjacket" of the d'Hondt system of appointing Executive Ministers. A simple cross-community mechanism that held true to the principles of the agreement was needed. Current arrangements offered the IRA a veto on progress.
Mr Trimble said if asked by Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams how to restore unionist faith in the Executive, he would say he had no idea how this could be done in the short term.
Steeling his party for the most crucial Westminster and local government elections in years, he told Rev Ian Paisley's DUP it should allow UUP candidates in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and South Belfast a clear run. If a split unionist ticket permitted a nationalist to take either seat, then the DUP would be rightly branded anti-unionist. "We can fight at local government level, but Westminster seats must not be thrown away. The man in the street can see that there are unionist seats that could be lost to nationalists and republicans on a split unionist vote."
The 100th agm of the Ulster Unionist Council, now streamlined to a membership of some 700 following constitutional reforms, was a calm affair compared with the tumultuous meetings in recent years called to challenge the Trimble policies and even his leadership.
There were no challenges to Mr Trimble's leadership from the roughly 400 in attendance. Speaking privately afterwards even Trimble opponents, including those who stood against him last year, accepted that his position and policy direction were secure.
A significant section of his speech contained his severest criticism yet of the DUP and that party's record since securing the leadership of unionism after the November 2003 Assembly elections. He accused the DUP of giving republicans a "green card" to continue criminal activity in the failed negotiations last December. "No wonder republicans thought they could get away with the Northern Bank raid."
He derided Dr Paisley's party as flip-flopping, policy-changing incompetents who were prepared to concede vital ground to republicans.
The DUP had failed to get decommissioning, and had conceded to an all-Ireland assembly of MLAs and TDs.
Although he did not mention the SDLP by name, he made a clear pitch for what he called the "centre ground", and called on the electorate to vote for those parties that never had an association with violence.
Trimble speech: selected extracts
A 100 years ago last Thursday, people like you, solid citizens of this province, gathered around the corner in the Ulster Hall for the first meeting of our council. We meet, however, at a moment of great seriousness. The values of our party are under threat and the way ahead for Northern Ireland appears uncertain. Most seriously, the language of threat has returned.
Two months from today we will be judged on our efforts in one of the toughest fights this party has ever faced. We will not be driven off the battlefield, in Fermanagh and south Tyrone - or here in south Belfast.
These are crucial elections. With local and national polls on the same day, the big political issues are bound to dominate. We are called to give account for our stewardship during this so-called peace process.
We knew from bitter experience that the British government could not be relied upon to articulate a unionist position. We knew it was our duty to defend the unionist corner when it really mattered. If necessary, alone.
If there was a chance of a deal that enshrined the principle of consent, that removed Dublin's claim and that restored Stormont, we had to go for it.
I make no apologies for that.
When the DUP did finally enter talks, there was no big new idea. When they came to confront the issues that we had wrestled with, they ended up in much the same place.The outcome was a far cry from their vainglorious boasts. They did not even attempt to change the joint declaration, or anything else they attacked over the years.
In fairness to some in the Irish Government, they saw the problem. When the actual IRA statement came out, the PDs broke cover. There was nothing in it about an end to criminal activity. We expressed our concern, but when The Irish Times contacted the DUP, they were reportedly "unperturbed".
In our view the unionist electorate would not support, or tolerate now or in the foreseeable future, the formation of an Executive that would include Sinn Féin. I have added that if Mr Adams were to ask me, which he has not done, how he could rebuild unionist support for such an Executive, I would reply that I have simply no idea how that could be done in the short-term.
So where do we go? First, we do not intend to re-enter an Executive that includes Sinn Féin. If republicans wish to be included in talks, then it must rebuild its credibility by doing all the things it should have done and present itself as a purely peaceful democratic movement with no private army.
Secondly, we should release politics from the d'Hondt straitjacket that currently gives the IRA a veto on political progress. The mechanisms for the necessary change are quite simple. Merely abolish the d'Hondt formula for appointing Ministers. Retain the simple cross-community vote for key issues and the joint election of First and Deputy First Ministers.