Ulster Unionism.... B.C.
When Tom Elliott uttered his now infamous comments about not attending gay pride events and GAA matches at a Portrush coffee evening, he probably wasn't aware that it amounted to a near declaration of war on Trevor Ringland's But given that the small steps Mr Ringland urged people to take included "watching a Gaelic game on TV" or buying either a cricket or Gaelic rule book, Mr Elliott's blithe expression of disinterest in the GAA always had the potential to stir Mr Ringland's ire.
So Mr Ringland's ultimatum to his new party leader on this morning's "Nolan show" should perhaps have been predictable. Mr Ringland gave Mr Elliott a day or two to perform a U turn on his GAA no show policy, or he would quit the party. Rather than declaring the offer of two tickets to next year's All Ireland final as hypothetical (since it depends on an Ulster team reaching the final) Mr Elliott told Talkback he wouldn't engage in tokenism. It sounded like a "no", implying Mr Elliott is resigned to losing Mr Ringland from the party.
Some Elliott backers may regard this as one small loss, given Mr Ringland's failure to prevent the rise and rise of Naomi Long in East Belfast. But the loss of such a high profile community relations activist, and a former rugby international to boot, isn't a great way for the Elliott era to begin. More to the point it has dominated the news reportage at a time when the Elliott team would have much preferred to be discussing their "vision" for the future.
Now back to the headline on this blog. No, it wasn't an attempt to suggest Mr Elliott is taking his party back to the prehistoric era. Instead I was thinking about a spot of bother his health minister, Michael McGimpsey, got into when he mixed up his Doctors B and C during today's joint session of the Health and Justice Committees. The Committees are investigating the case of the return of the McDermott brothers to Donagh after they were found unfit to stand trial for serial abuse.
Mr McGimpsey admitted he'd made an error in failing to admit that a Doctor C worked for the Western Health Trust when answering questions about the Donagh case in the Assembly chamber. MLAs are also examining whether this Doctor C had liaised sufficiently with a Doctor B before giving evidence in a court hearing on the case.
Before we all get confused over our Bs and Cs, the point is that other MLAs (most notably the DUP's Paul Givan) jumped on the confusion to claim that Mr McGimpsey was ill prepared and should stand down. As the minister's new leader, Mr Elliott has the power to remove Mr McGimpsey. He says he hasn't taken any decisions yet on when he will rotate his ministerial team, but it seems safe to assume he won't be listening to the DUP's advice about who he should leave in charge of either the Health or Employment departments.
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