Reading between the lines

By Martina Purdy
BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent

Unmasking Jeffrey Donaldson as a UUP plotter is a bit like declaring to television audiences that Clark Kent is really Superman.

Jeffrey Donaldson (left) makes revelations about David Trimble

So some of what is contained in the News Letter serialisation of a new Jeffrey Donaldson biography, Not By Might, will come as no surprise. It claims there was a secret plot to oust Mr Trimble - but this is still denied.

Whatever the truth, Mr Donaldson's "co-conspirators", named in the book, are hardly unknown figures: Fred Cobain, Danny Kennedy, Sir Reg Empey, David Burnside, Arlene Foster and Jim Nicholson.

It was widely reported last year that Sir Reg Empey, along with fellow UUP officer Jim Rodgers, was holding meetings with David Trimble's opponents and concerned party members.

It is also no secret that these people were unhappy with Mr Trimble's bid to oust Mr Donaldson from the party.

And it is also known that MLAs Fred Cobain and Danny Kennedy were involved in talks with the anti-Trimble camp.

'Dream team'

Some viewed these two as a posse sent out by Sir Reg Empey. It was suggested they were testing the waters - amid speculation of a plot to create a "dream team" leadership with Empey and Donaldson filling the top posts.

But Sir Reg and others around him have always insisted their aim was to heal party wounds and prevent Mr Donaldson from leaving the party.

What the new book does is to put some flesh on the events of last summer that ultimately led to Mr Trimble's survival as leader - and Jeffrey Donaldson's defection to the DUP.

More significantly, it revives memories of damaging splits and exposes the continuing weaknesses of the Ulster Unionist Party. Little wonder Jeffrey Donaldson is smiling out from its cover.

Most damning of all are quotations from a 17-page memo - purported to be drafted by Sir Reg Empey - on the party's fault-lines: the party and its leadership are dysfunctional, the party's headquarters and overall organisation is "a shambles", and the inability of the UUP to negotiate a deal because of doubts the party could deliver.

No doubt the UUP is damaged by having its problems spelled out so publicly by one of its own.

Sir Reg Empey does not come out of this book with much credit

Sir Reg Empey who, throughout the turbulent years, tried to maintain good relations with Mr Donaldson, does not come out of this biography with much credit - he is painted as weak; a politician who lost his nerve when his chance came.

Sir Reg is not commenting beyond a statement he gave to the News Letter in which he pointed out he had given a public commitment early last year not to stand against his leader.

He also denied any conspiracy - insisting the meetings were public and aimed at uniting the party.

The book's suggestion that Sir Reg lost his bottle is rich to some in the UUP. They make the same allegation about Mr Donaldson - that he lost his nerve in September 2002 when he opted for a compromise position with Mr Trimble.

'Terse' reaction

Mr Trimble's reaction to the book has been terse: "Mr Donaldson's motives in raking up the past in this manner are obvious and will not in any way improve his standing in the minds of most people."

The UUP leader cannot seem to shake off his former nemesis, and the pool of bitterness that remains is set to bubble again if Daphne Trimble, the leader's wife, wins the party's nomination to challenge Donaldson in Lagan Valley.

David Trimble's reaction to the book has been terse

Other senior Ulster Unionists say they feel let down by Mr Donaldson who, like them, had committed to confidential discussions.

They insist the aim of the talks was finding a unifying policy - not to oust the leader.

"How could you deal with someone like that in future?" one asked. "He's being manipulated by the DUP - the whole thing is tacky quite frankly."

Mr Donaldson said there were people in the Ulster Unionist Party who privately wanted to see Mr Trimble ousted as leader - and he is standing by the account in the book.

He told the BBC: "It is simply a factual account of what happened during a very interesting period in Northern Ireland politics. People can make their own judgements."

Mr Kennedy issued a veiled threat to Mr Donaldson that two could play his game when he suggested he could reveal what was said in those meetings about certain DUP figures.

And so the UUP-Donaldson war goes on.

If a silver lining is to be taken from this book, then it must encourage the Ulster Unionist Party to confront its demons - and perhaps that means digging out the old 17-page memo as a starting point.

If the leader is not going to change, then the party needs to - and with some haste.