Ugly politics

OH DEAR, is the UUP leadership race going to get ugly?

After years of being the beige old men of Northern Ireland politics (as one visitor to a recent conference quipped, you can spot the UUP youth wing...they don’t have zimmer frames) could the Ulster Unionist leadership race become exciting?

There has been a complaint lodged about Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Tom Elliott announcing his candidacy too early. Elliott has scoffed at this...and it does seem a wee bit petty to try and score points on a technicality; but then again there are a few legal types in the UUP who like to see if they can read small print.

With other potential candidates yet to nail their colours to the leadership mast, we only have a few short weeks before it all gets interesting.

But the real risk is that any rowing and fighting that might keep outsiders entertained will also divide the party that once prided itself as being a bastion of ‘broad church unionism’.