15 July 2002

Following the widely trailed violence on the Springfield Road, the PSNI believe that this twelth was a relatively relaxed affair. Though Henry McDonald suggests that the Orange Order need to take a long hard look at itself. Others within the Order like George Patten apparently agree.

John Coulter highlights an impending collapse in confidence within the Yes-camp unionist camp, and further suggests that Trimble has no choice but to make a serious shift to the right:

"Strategically, Trimble is holed up in a political Alamo and down to his last round. He can fire in only one direction. He must rekindle the ethos of his right-wing radical days in the hardline Ulster Vanguard Movement of the early 1970s and shove his entire unionist party to the Protestant equivalent of the far right.

But this latest leadership crisis is different for Trimble, in that the grumblings for change are coming not from its traditional source of revolt -- the dissident faction within the UUP -- but from the supposed Yes camp itself. Many grassroots supporters of the Agreement are privately expressing the view that Trimble is past his political sell-buy date."

Barry White on the cost of Drumcree, and how it might be curbed in future.

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