The UUP's other concern was Chris Patton's police reform Commission, which had published its recommendations on reform of the RUC in September 1999. These reforms, which included a new name, badge and oath, went much further than Unionists had dared to imagine, and there was great fury. David Trimble angrily branded it "a shoddy piece of work". However, the UUP does not seem to have expected the government to adopt the recommendations to the extend that Patton proposed. Sinn Fein yet again demanded nothing short of disbandment of the RUC, but put off an official response until the government announced the extent to which it would accept the recommendations.

Over the 2 months after the formation of the Executive, the public was overjoyed to see their own representatives governing Northern Ireland for the first time in 30 years. TV programmes like "Stormont Live" sprang up on TV and groups of people marched to Stormont to demand actions on refreshingly 'bread-and-butter' issues. However, by the end ofJanuary, it became clear that the IRA was not going to start decommissioning.

To add to Unionist woes, the government almost totally accepted Patton's proposals on 19 January 2000. The announcement was welcomed by the SDLP, although Sinn Fein again did not respond.The Unionists howled 'treachery', and claimed that they had been given a guarantee during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations that the police reforms would not be nearly so across-the-board as they had turned out to be. Add this to the chauldron that already held the continued refusal of the IRA to start decommissioning, and the Executive began to look shakier and shakier.

As coincidence would have it, the decommissiong body (headedby General John de Chastelain) was due to give a report on the state of decommisioning on January 31st. The UUP announced that if this showed no IRA decommissioning, then they would withdraw their support from the Executive. As the UUP was the largest party in the Assembly, this would effectively collapse the institution. The SDLP added its voice to calls for a commencement of decommissioning. As the 'official' deadline for decommissioning was May 2000, Sinn Fein angrily said that the UUP was creating 'more pre-conditions'.

The British government seems to have been unprepared for this surprisingly hard-line stance from the UUP, perhaps because the Unionists are known more for lack of action, than the use of it. This could be why the decommissioning report was mysteriously withheld by the government for several days. Leaked reports showed that the report did, indeed, report no decommissioning by the IRA. Still, as the report had not been officially published, the UUP could not pull out of the Executive as they had threatened. Reports were circulated that the British government had asked de Chastelain to prepare another report, using more positive language.

>> February 2000 >>