A choice of party or country?

By Mark Devenport BBC Northern Ireland political editor

Depending on your point of view the Ulster Unionists' threat to withdraw from the power sharing government is either the party at last standing up for its basic principles, or the beginning of the end of the Good Friday Agreement.

No sooner had the dust settled on the Ulster Unionist Council's threat to withdraw from government than commentators were presented with parallel realities.

Predictably, just about every other player in the peace process queued up to kick the Ulster Unionists - Gerry Adams called their proposals "a wrecker's charter" and, speaking on the BBC Inside Politics programme, the SDLP leader Mark Durkan likened Jeffrey Donaldson to "Attilla the Hun".

However the party at the centre of the storm appeared to radiate a warm inner glow.

Ulster Unionist compromise strategy has brought 'inner glow'

Reflecting on the UUP's new united image, one party official said that whilst everyone outside appeared annoyed, everyone inside their new headquarters, Cunningham House, seemed very upbeat.

It has often been claimed that the former SDLP leader John Hume put his country before his party by encouraging Sinn Fein's rise to political prominence in order to secure the IRA ceasefire.

With a potentially difficult election looming, it seems many Ulster Unionists believe it's time to put their party before the country.

If the UUP beat off the challenge from the DUP, then for them it will justify reducing Stormont to chaos for a few months next spring.

Of course things may not be that simple, both inside and outside the UUP.

John Reid could wield the threat of direct rule

The warm glow of unity lasted precisely four days until the Lagan Valley Ulster Unionists dumped the party's Stormont chief whip and key Trimble ally Ivan Davis.

The sceptical local MP Jeffrey Donaldson denied that this was part of a deliberate purge of pro-agreement candidates for the next election assembly election.

But that was precisely the conclusion drawn by Mr Davis and his many friends in the leadership.

Outside the party, the British and Irish governments are pouring over their calendars and their law books trying to work out how to handle the aftermath of any Ulster Unionist resignations in January.

Agreement suicide?

Could an early election prove political suicide for the Agreement? Or is the prospect of a deal between, say, the DUP and Sinn Fein realistic?

Should there be a short term suspension leading to a May election, or a longer one delaying polling day?

Should a wide ranging review take place before voters have their say or afterwards? A lot still has to be sorted out.

Behind the insistence of nationalists that the Agreement cannot be renegotiated lies the spectre of joint authority, with London and Dublin pushing the Good Friday agenda forward without unionist cooperation.

The Ulster Unionists are currently holding an axe over the neck of the peace process. But the governments have a few hatchets of their own which they could threaten to wield in the future.