Basil versus the "cabal"
i got drenched on my way back from attending Basil McCrea's leadership campaign launch at the Merchant Hotel and the water is still dripping down from my hair onto my keyboard as I type!
The style of this launch contrasted strongly with Tom Elliott's event in Antrim. Both candidates emphasised their support from both men and women (whilst Tom had Sandra Overend -and belatedly I should add Jo-Anne Dobson - Basil had Paula Bradshaw and Leslie Macauley), but Basil made great play of his supporters from across society, with a former head of the Ulster Farmers Union, a Montupet shop steward and a couple of business figures. Tom had far and away more UUP elected representatives - but Basil tried to turn this around by portraying himself as the anti-establishment figure, joking that "Tom is supported by many MLAs and party officials, I won't go into what other problems he has, but he's got those people behind him."
Mr McCrea depicted himself as the moderniser up against the traditionalists. He made five pledges (although unlike Tony Blair he hadn't written them out in hand for all to see). They were that he wouldn't take a ministry until the success of the party is assured, that the UUP would take education as its first choice, there would be no pacts, MLAs would be subjected to regular appraisals of their attendance and performance and discipline would be tightly enforce to end the era of mixed messages. On this latter point he made it pretty clear, without naming them, that he had David McNarry's election night pronouncement on Sir Reg Empey in mind, along with Danny Kennedy's talk ofa coalition with the DUP and Fred Cobain's threat that if the Stormont rules aren't changed the UUP would form an Assembly group with the DUP.
Mr McCrea railed against the "cabal of cronies" who believed they had a divine right to lead the UUP, and pledged to ensure the party once again provided Northern Ireland's First Minister.
That latter pronouncement seems to be rather over optimistic, something underlined when Diana Rusk of the Irish News asked the candidate if his pledge on taking education had any merit given that the DUP or Sinn Fein would get their choice of departments first. Basil McCrea replied by insisting the UUP would emerge from next year's Assembly election as the biggest party.
Sure, there is nothing wrong with wishful thinking - but even though there's a bookmakers next door to the Merchant hotel I didn't nip in to put any money on that result next May. However the outcome on September 22nd, when the two candidates make their pitch to the UUP delegates, might be more worthy of a flutter.
I'm 
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