UUP leader's unfinished business

By Mark Simpson
BBC Ireland correspondent

Amid the marathon negotiations aimed at salvaging the Northern Ireland peace process, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has somehow found time to read six books.

They include Astonishing Splashes of Colour, which was shortlisted for this year's Booker prize.

We chatted briefly before an interview last week. How, I wondered, did he have time to plough through six different books at such a critical time?

David Trimble insists he is not "a quitter"

"I haven't finished them all," he admitted, with a smile.

Unfinished business then. A bit like what is happening with IRA weapons decommissioning.

There has been a beginning, but there is no sign of an ending.

This is also true of David Trimble's career as Ulster Unionist Party leader.

In spite of his many enemies outside - and inside - the party, he has emerged as one of the great survivors of Northern Ireland politics.

He has been leader for eight years. What perhaps sums up his time in office, is the fact that a fellow MP challenged him for the party leadership a year after he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Good negotiator?

The challenger was the Reverend Martin Smyth - and he won 43% of the vote. Not much has changed since then.

There is still a long queue of unionists trying to get rid of Trimble, but the leader's support for the Good Friday Agreement is still backed by a narrow majority of the party faithful.

Working under these conditions can take its toll. And sometimes it shows.

At times, it appears Mr Trimble is struggling to keep his cool. One Belfast cartoonist always used to draw him with a purple face.

The best way to portray Mr Trimble's current position might be to draw Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in a tug-of-war against anti-Agreement unionists Jeffrey Donaldson and Ian Paisley - with Mr Trimble as the rope.

So is he a good negotiator?

Political stability in NI is Mr Trimble's goal

No, say those who watched with bewilderment as he tried to do a deal with Sinn Fein this week without getting down on paper exactly what further IRA decommissioning was going to take place.

Yes, say those who ask what other unionist leader would have have achieved any decommissioning at all?

Those close to Mr Trimble say a political crisis brings out the best in him. And let's face it, he has had plenty of practice.

Even when he was elected Northern Ireland's First Minister in 1999, there was no time for a settling-in period.

The power-sharing executive at Stormont soon collapsed as any trust between Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein quickly broke down.

So less than three months after moving into his new office, Mr Trimble was packing his books back into boxes and moving out again.

Speaking of books, is it not time he wrote his own?

That, it seems, will have to wait until he retires.

And in spite of the current difficulties, there is nothing to suggest that he is about to step down or be forced out.

"I'm not a quitter" is one of his favourite lines.

He doesn't want to go until he achieves his goal of political stability in Northern Ireland. When that occurs - or more accurately, if that occurs - he could then write his book.

It would certainly be worth reading - in full.