Blair must back up Trimble in his struggle for the soul of the UUP
His attempted coup d'état in trying to seize governance of the Ulster Unionist Party, by halving the parliamentary party led by David Trimble in the House of Commons, is unlikely to result in the Lagan Valley MP taking over the reins of leadership of the UUP. Nor can it be taken for granted that Mr Trimble's days at the helm are over. For the sake of the peace process, I hope they are not.
Mr Donaldson graphically illustrated this week that democracy is a chronic condition to which he is allergic.
He cannot accept it within the structure of the Ulster Unionist Council, and we always knew he could not accept it where the Good Friday Agreement was concerned.
The Ulster Unionist Council, with something like 860 delegates, is a ubiquitous body and represents the mainstream of unionism. It is also the governing body to which the Ulster Unionist Party is answerable, and as such imposes its imprint on policies which the party pursues.
It's like an árd fheis of Fianna Fáil, except that it meets several times during the year and the party leader has to get its imprimatur before he can make any kind of decision.
That was illustrated on too many occasions when David Trimble had the dual role of First Minister and also leader of the UUP. As First Minister, he was de facto prime minister of Northern Ireland and as such he represented all the people of Northern Ireland, but effectively that role played second fiddle to that of leader of the UUP.
Consequently, although he is pro-Agreement and is still the best unionist bet in having it progressed, because of the numerous challenges he has faced to his leadership have prompted him to seek to impose conditions on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement which were never part of it.
He also has the ear of British Prime Minister Tony Blair who called off the Assembly elections in May at Mr Trimble's behest, against the wishes of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. There's still no decision on when they may be held, although they might happen next October.
In reality, David Trimble has to defer to the Ulster Unionist Council to protect his position as UUP leader, and the UUC exerts an unhealthy influence on the direction of the peace process. But at the end of the day, the council is the controlling body of unionism and only a week ago backed David Trimble against Jeffrey Donaldson, who wanted the organisation to reject the joint declaration from the British and Irish Governments.
It was a narrow enough majority 54% against 46% but still a majority, and the Donaldson camp has now thrown the will of the majority back in their faces. The joint declaration has been described as the "roadmap" a la the Middle East to get the peace process back on track, but Jeffrey Donaldson believes the declaration should be ditched, along with Mr Trimble.
Neither of the two is enamoured of the Good Friday Agreement but the difference is that Mr Trimble sees it as the best deal on the table for unionists, preferably with a few of his own conditions inserted.
From day one, Jeffrey Donaldson opposed it, although the Ulster Unionist Council endorsed David Trimble's support for it by voting 72% in favour in 1998. Since then, Jeffrey Donaldson has used it like a blunt instrument to try to dislodge Mr Trimble as leader.
His latest strategy was to resign from the UUP parliamentary party this week, along with party president Martin Smyth and David Burnside, thereby halving the strength of the party in the House of Commons. They might have done the decent thing and resigned from the party as well, but they can inflict more damage from within.
They are now in discussions with Ian Paisley's DUP and Bob McCartney's UK Unionist Party to form a coalition against the joint declaration and to try and force fresh negotiations.
What they're about has a certain historical resonance going back 30 years. A Northern Ireland Assembly was elected in June 1973. The British government's aim was to restore devolved government, but with power shared by both Catholic and Protestant representatives. This was agreed by party leaders and the Irish and British governments at Sunningdale in Berkshire in December 1973.
A power-sharing executive, with Brian Faulkner as Chief Executive and Gerry Fitt as his deputy, began work at the start of 1974.
The Ulster Unionist Council, however, rejected the Sunningdale Agreement, and in the Westminster general election of February that year, 11 of the 12 MPs elected for Northern Ireland were loyalists opposed to power-sharing.
When the Assembly approved power-sharing, Protestant workers launched a highly-effective strike which paralysed the region for 15 days until Faulkner resigned. Consequently, direct rule continued from Westminster for many years to come.
And today, that would be the preferred choice of most anti-Agreement unionists, rather than share power with republicans and nationalists, because they cling to the past and want to deny the only framework offering a potential future for Northern Ireland.
What Jeffrey Donaldson and his two collaborators have done is about as ridiculous as three Fianna Fáil TDs telling Bertie Ahern to take a flying leap, staying inside the Soldiers of Destiny and joining forces with Labour over the health cuts.
It's even more farcical when you consider that Martin Smyth is the president of the UUP and Jeffrey Donaldson one of four vice-presidents.
Yesterday, at the request of David Trimble, senior UUP members held an emergency meeting to consider the ramifications of the rebellion.
Presumably the party will take disciplinary proceedings against them. It should do so, in support of their leader whose demands that they quit the party have been studiously ignored. Given that David Trimble enjoys the support of the majority of the 14 party officers, this is one battle he should win.
It seems extraordinary that they should even have to set up a disciplinary hearing to consider the case. In any other party their actions would have meant their immediate resignation, or expulsion.
As David Trimble said, resignation would have been the principled course of action, but, after all, this is Northern Ireland.
What he also needs is for his good friend Tony Blair to come out with an unequivocal message to the rebels that his government has no intention of treating with them.
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