Who will have the last laugh?

By Mark Devenport
BBC Northern Ireland political editor

Sammy Wilson said he found plenty of material in the TUV manifesto

Sammy Wilson, normally the court jester of the DUP, missed last year's conference because of an engagement in his East Antrim constituency.

But this year he was back with a vengeance telling wise cracks about his opponents and rubbing environmentalists' noses in his climate change scepticism. "I had dinner with them and what was for dessert? Baked Alaska!"

The finance minister confided that the night before the conference he didn't have much material.

But an advisor left a copy of the Traditional Unionist Jim Allister's recent conference speech in his briefcase, and that was all it took to get him fired up.

Mr Wilson engaged in a lengthy joke about how the jobless Jim, who lost his role as an MEP, might have to apply to be Dorothy in the forthcoming production of the Wizard of Oz.

'Joint authority Jim'

"Hard to imagine him in pigtails, but like Dorothy he left his home (the DUP) not once but twice," he said.

Sammy Wilson wasn't the only one concentrating his fire on Mr Allister.

The DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds called him "joint authority Jim".

Leader Peter Robinson seemed to have TUV supporters in mind when he talked about "unionist cave dwellers who seek to wreck our achievements".

In the past, the DUP seemed to hope that by ignoring Jim Allister or refusing to mention him by name they would marginalise their erstwhile colleague, who left the party in protest at their decision to share power with Sinn Fein.

At this conference they decided to take him on directly, even though the TUV leader might see that as confirmation of the damage his 66,000 votes in the last European election did his former party.

In turning to face the criticism, Peter Robinson has decided that the only path the DUP can take is to stand over their track record in sharing power by arguing the only alternative is Dublin tinged Direct Rule.

The current leader conspicuously aligned himself with all the key decisions taken by his predecessor Ian Paisley.

Devolution

The British and Irish governments will probably take heart from the tone of Peter Robinson's speech, on the grounds that if the DUP is selling devolution it will be reluctant to do anything which might precipitate the destruction of the Stormont institutions.

Although Mr Robinson told his supporters he couldn't guarantee Stormont's future, he assured them that the DUP wouldn't walk away.

Mr Robinson said the DUP would not walk away from power sharing

As one party aide put it during a break in the proceedings "this is about timing, not principle. It's going to happen, we don't want to bring the house down over this".

Peter Robinson kept the British and Irish governments and the other parties guessing about his handling of any future negotiations on devolving policing and justice, resorting to his by now familiar talk of "community confidence".

But he associated the principle of Stormont wielding justice powers with the unionist hero Edward Carson, and told unionists they should not back away from such a long standing aspiration just because Sinn Fein has belatedly adopted it as their price for supporting the PSNI.

This conference was well attended and the mood seemed confident even though the delegates, some of whom attended a workshop on "effective canvassing", know they will have their work cut out fighting both the Conservatives and Unionists and the TUV at the next Westminster election.