Trimble remark draws strong attack from within

A row erupted in the Ulster Unionist Party tonight after David Trimble was accused of exacerbating internal divisions in the wake of the second act of IRA decommissioning.

UUP president the Rev Martin Smyth, who challenged Mr Trimble for the leadership of the party in March 2000, criticised the Northern Ireland First Minister for claiming the second act of decommissioning had made anti Good Friday Agreement unionists look ‘‘rather foolish’’.

In a tough talking speech to the Drumbo branch of the Lagan Valley Ulster Unionist Association, the South Belfast MP claimed the attitude displayed by Mr Trimble would make party unity ‘‘problematic’’.

‘‘It was an extraordinary way to implement the new-found party unity which our recent council meeting was told was developing,’’ said Mr Smyth.

‘‘The leader may think that many of us, including his party’s president, are fools.

‘‘He is entitled to his opinion. However, those who will take a contrary opinion are also entitled to their view.

‘‘Indeed, I think if one looks objectively at the implementation of the Agreement as a whole, the leader will find that the situation more resembles the quotation by the 1820s Prime Minister Lord Melbourne.

‘‘What all the wise men promised has not happened and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.’’

The South Belfast MP said Ulster Unionists should not dwell under the illusion of leadership perfection.

In a spirited defence of the anti-Agreement Ulster Unionist camp, he asked: ‘‘Is it not foolish to be lambasting others over decommissioning after backing an agreement which said it would be completed two years ago, especially when we still don’t know when or if it will be completed?

‘‘Did some Ulster Unionists not say that having our party sit in government with Sinn Fein/IRA before decommissioning would never happen?

‘‘Did those same people not look very foolish when they broke repeated pledges to our electorate to do just that?

‘‘I did not hear any denials of it when I raised it in my address to our annual meeting.’’

Mr Smyth also asked if it was not foolish to be still involved in implementing an accord which many unionists now believed was unrecognisable from the one they were originally sold.

In a reference to last year’s general election, he continued: ‘‘Was it not foolish to go into an election promising to return with seven to 10 seats and on ‘the upper scale of that’, only to return not even hitting the lower scale and with a mere 3,000 votes across three seats separating us from being the smallest party rather than clinging on as the biggest party by the skin of our teeth?

‘‘Was it not foolish to go to negotiations at Weston Park telling the people that ‘Clearly there is going to be just one issue at the talks’, only for the decommissioning issue to be removed from the agenda and instead a raft of secret deals being done, including an amnesty and the awarding of Westminster offices to Sinn Fein?

‘‘Was it not foolish to say that you want to be re-elected with the majority of unionists (in the Assembly) and then be party to the humiliation of having people be called unionists for a day and rig the system because you could not get that majority?

‘‘I could go on, particularly in questioning the judgment of recent comments which only succeeded in keeping issues of more current relevance and importance to unionism off the agenda.’’