The Conservative-Ulster Unionist alliance is an albatross around Cameron's neck, but it's not too late to be saved from those that plague him says Conor McGinn.

Northern Ireland politics is a bit like nuclear physics: very complicated, highly specialised, obsessed with minutiae and potentially explosive. David Cameron must therefore be rueing the day he decided to take the Tories into that complex and unpredictable world without even the slightest training or protection. His rapidly disintegrating electoral alliance with the Ulster Unionists has been beset by internal wrangling over joint candidates, secret talks during delicate negotiations, accusations of sectarianism and now a profound disagreement between two allies about the devolution of policing and justice.

The deal to complete this final, crucial part of the devolution jigsaw was struck at Hillsborough last month. A week of intensive talks led to an agreement between the DUP and Sinn Féin which outlined a timetable for transferring powers from Westminster to Stormont, the culmination of which was today’s vote in the Assembly to elect the Alliance Party’s David Ford – deliberately appointed from outside of the two main parties – to the post of Justice Minister-elect. Whatever the flaws of the system by which he was appointed, or the way in which the deal was struck, it is hugely significant achievement and undoubtedly a good day for Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, there was one exception to the overwhelming public and political support for the devolution of policing and justice. If Sinn Féin is ‘Ourselves Alone’, the Ulster Unionists today became ‘On Your Own’. They cynically and unreasonably voted against transferring the powers from Westminster to Stormont. Their stance left them isolated, ridiculed and charged with emboldening dissident republicans who are committed to carrying out acts of violence against the police and the community.

This poses serious questions for David Cameron and the Conservative Party. Despite the Tories publicly supporting the devolution of policing and justice, their partners in the Ulster Unionist Party very vocally opposed it. The Tories also maintain that they are committed to bipartisanship, yet their Ulster Unionist allies accused the NI Secretary of State, Shaun Woodward, of ‘interfering’ in local matters and of ‘blackmailing’ parties into supporting the vote in the Assembly.

Cameron and his Shadow Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, both personally intervened and tried to persuade their Ulster Unionist partners to support the devolution of policing and justice. Aside from the public humiliation – and exposure of the very limited influence Cameron and Paterson have on the Ulster Unionists – the Tories must be concerned about how the debacle undermines the premise of the pact, which was essentially to get Ulster Unionist votes in a potentially numerically tight new Parliament. They understand too, that a political relationship is unsustainable if the partners involved have diametrically opposing view on fundamental issues. One Conservative MP told me that if questions about their alliance with Europe’s far-right were a headache, then the ‘Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force (UCUNF)’ is a chronic migraine. Yet by opposing the devolution of policing and justice, the Ulster Unionists have inadvertently given David Cameron an opportunity to clear his head. He should take it and use it to declare that the Conservative-Ulster Unionist alliance is untenable and finished, and that he and his party will work with parties across the political divide in Northern Ireland to secure and build upon the peace process.

Photo: UUP Conference 2008