At the graveside of democracy, Trimble and Paisley share a smile
Tottering from one suspension to the next is merely postponing the day when Unionists of all shades will have to recognise that democracy has arrived in the North.
The sight of Ian Paisley pictured on the front page of this newspaper with his mouth agape in a burst of laughter was confirmation that the peace process was heading for real trouble once again.
The dependably dour dinosaur of Jurassic politics was uncharacteristically mirthful for the simple reason that he had trumped David Trimble by removing his party from the democratic process.
The unsettling image appeared the day after the inappropriately named Democratic Unionist Party held a press conference to announce that its two ministers would withdraw from the executive. Paisley's jaws opened by a big hiccup in the peace process is not a pretty sight.
The intention was that without the participation of Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds, the power-sharing government in the North would collapse and the region would be delivered back to the safety of direct rule from London. In the blighted view of the DUP, dealing with Westminster is far better than having to tolerate nationalists and republicans having any say over their destiny.
It would be the preferred solution, too, for anti-Agreement factions within David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party.
A suggestion that the vacuum could be filled not by direct rule from London, but by joint rule by the Irish and British Governments, brought rabidly anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson out in a rash.
"It would be disastrous for political stability not only in Northern Ireland but on the island of Ireland. I think the Irish Government has enough on its plate with the Flood report."
Joint authority, he added, is not the way because that excludes political parties from the process of government. "If you are in the business of excluding all the parties, it leaves the paramilitaries in charge," he added.
Far better, from his perspective, would be the selective exclusion of Sinn Féin.
So, in the event of another suspension of the Assembly, the only alternative apart from a political horizon without republicans and nationalists that would suit the likes of Jeffrey Donaldson and Ian Paisley would be direct rule from London. In the absence of the Assembly and Executive, unionism would still have a voice through the House of Commons, and Sinn Féin would be stifled.
Just about a fortnight ago, after the latest meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, David Trimble laid down another condition for the continuation of the Executive beyond January next.
That's been brought forward to next week in the wake of the farce witnessed in Belfast this week.
The Provisional IRA would have had to produce incontrovertible evidence that the war was over by delivering up whatever arms they have left.
In the meantime, the loyalist terrorists could continue their war among the disparate factions, as well as against the Catholic population.
So arrogant is David Trimble that he has issued an ultimatum to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He gave Mr Blair seven days to act. In other words, throw Sinn Féin off the Executive, or else he would follow the example of Paisley's DUP and take himself and the UUP ministers out of the Executive.
It seems strange that neither Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, nor the Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, was aware of the scale of the raid on the Sinn Féin offices.
John Hume has described it as "very strange" and wonders, like many others, how the material found by the police in the Sinn Féin office got there in the first place and, as important, how did the police know so quickly?
Two stark realities stare any disinterested observer in the face.
The first is that the IRA has been on ceasefire for years and has decommissioned arms and ammunition to the satisfaction of the De Chastelaine Commission, the international body charged with this responsibility. Despite repeated and persistent provocation from various loyalist terrorist organisations, the republicans have not broken their ceasefire.
If, as we are led to believe, the police have been investigating leaks of security and confidential documents to the IRA for the past 12 months, then quite obviously the IRA has not acted on the information they are alleged to have received.
By contrast, under various guises, loyalists have continued with a reign of terror seemingly without any repercussions, except for those they inflict on themselves.
It is difficult not to disagree with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams when he rejected any suggestion that they were enmeshed in a supposed spy ring.
Two computer disks that were seized by the police during the raid on their Stormont offices were returned. Apart from the disks, the police raiding party emerged empty-handed, but they did expose Sinn Féin to a major assault from unionism of every hue.
Whether or not it was a contrived exercise is a matter of opinion, but it put the smile back on David Trimble's face and he, like Paisley, had not been in smiling mood for quite a long time.
Trimble wants Sinn Féin expelled from the Executive, and the police handed him a reason to indulge his favourite fetish.
Despite the fact that he is the First Minister, Mr Trimble's demeanour is far from that of prime ministerial quality. As First Minister he should represent all of the people in Northern Ireland, irrespective of their creed, colour or political affiliations.
Yet his other hat as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party is the one we see him wearing most of the time, and it is the one he is most concerned about losing.
To hang on to it, he has to keep the unwieldy Ulster Unionist Council sweet, an almost impossible task, composed as it is of well over 800 representatives of all shades of unionism.
His ultimatum that the UUP Ministers would walk away in January came from the last UUC meeting and was a tactic he came up with to keep the dissidents with him for the moment.
Most of the conditions, pre-conditions, and ultimatums which Mr Trimble dreamed up invariably stemmed from his desperation to hang onto his leadership of the party. He could only manage that by playing to the UUC gallery. If that involves demanding the denial of the democratic rights of those who voted for Sinn Féin, by insisting the party's ministers are kicked out of the Executive, then it's a price he reckons they should have to pay.
A man who would not agree that this crisis is just a conspiracy against Sinn Féin is the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, David Ervine, one of the moderate and sensible voices of unionism.
He has a pragmatic attitude.
"The responsibilty for sorting this out must rest with the politicians of Northern Ireland. But, instead of having a collective process, we see both sides running shuttle services to Dublin and London seeking single constituency benefits," he said.
He believes that Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair need to stay out of the present Northern crisis and keep the doors of Leinster House and Downing Street firmly closed on Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionist Party. He's right, of course. The sooner the politicians there realise they were elected to run the country, rather than run away from each other, the sooner the North will settle down.
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