NI parties are no more than pressure groups

After David Trimble's recent overtures to the British Conservatives, this letter from David Wylie to the Belfast Telegraph that seems to speak a major dilemma within the Ulster Unionist party, and indeed most of the NI political parties:

"...the UUP, like most other political parties in Northern Ireland, remains a single issue organisation; more a lobbying group at Westminster than a Party able to make a valuable contribution on a wide variety of social, economic and political issues affecting all of our nation."

"Until David Trimble realises that to be a unionist one must not also have to be a Tory, a monarchist, or indeed a Protestant, we will continue to play a "numbers game" in Northern Ireland - one that has already reached stalemate."

A view that is given some substantial support by Quentin Davies's comments a few days ago.