Brendan Hughes: Unitarianism on Brexit was just deep publicity

Dog Pete’s joint statement with other union leaders against the Northern Ireland exit from the European Union has always seemed like an odd decision.

A phone call with Stormont last September was clearly a desperate attempt by the DUP to avoid splitting the union vote with rivals close to his orbit.

Mr Petty, who shared the platform with the DUP, TUV and PUP, was in no way intended to help the Ulster Unionist Party as a clear and unambiguous view of the trade frontiers of the Irish Sea.

However, it was clear from the start that showing union unity was just a publicity stunt.

Any remaining aspect of the overall approach was destroyed last weekend when Ulster unionists withdrew from demonstrations against the upcoming protocol.

Although the UUP has always had a semi-separate voter turnout, it was still a bold move for Petty during the election.

A spokesman for Uber Ban admitted the decision could cost his party votes in as little as five weeks in an assembly vote.

But the participation of the UUP has become unbearable. Petty said the demonstrations were increasingly used to protest the 1998 Good Friday Deal.

“I am a party leader and I believe that the Belfast Agreement has given us peace and will help us overcome this crisis in the long run,” he said.

The final straw came after a bomb scam took place last week at an event in North Belfast attended by Irish Government Minister Simon Cowen. The incident in which the truck driver was kidnapped at gunpoint was attributed to ultraviolet radiation.

Unionists in Ulster questioned why none of the speakers denounced the anti-protocol demonstration of Palaimon that day, following a security alert.

Beatty later said the events were being used to heighten tensions and said he believed loyal military personnel had taken part in some of the demonstrations.

Other prominent unionists, including DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson, called for a “peaceful protest”.

However, the nightly attack on Mr. Petty’s department office in Portadown, hours after he had left, was only to justify his fears.

While Mr Petty said he “is not doing it to vote”, this decision may be his last best chance to put clear blue water between his party and rival unionists.

A recent LucidTalk poll, released on Monday, found Beat Sunrise may have fallen since he became union leader in Ulster last year.

At 13%, the party has fallen to roughly the same level of support it had in the last assembly elections in 2017. It puts the party behind its rivals the Democratic Unionist Party (19%), the Alliance Party (16%) and Sinn Féin. And it remains in the first place (26%).

The Unionist party in Ulster said it wanted “logical alternatives” to the protocol and rejected the DUP’s protest tactics against the dissolution of Stormont’s executive branch.

“Teacher’s blood and thunder’s speech won’t help or solve the protocol problem,” Betty said.

If the UUP is trying to present itself as a more pragmatic position, it makes sense to distance the party from these demonstrations.

Sir Geoffrey condemned the events in North Belfast and Portadown, saying “violence cannot play a role in resolving our political problems in Northern Ireland”.

But the UUP’s withdrawal could put pressure on Sir Geoffrey to attend some rallies, especially if public tensions escalate.

The problem for the UUP to have an intermediate position between the coalition and the DUP for the electorate is that this may end up being dissatisfied.

Mr Petty had a positive impact on HMS Caroline’s exceptional backdrop to the launch of the UUP Manifesto at the Ports of Belfast this week.

But be prepared for an abundance of metaphors to sink ships and rearrange deck chairs if all this goes wrong on voting day.