Mr David Trimble, whose Ulster Unionist Party leadership is again under threat, today embarks on a "whistle-stop tour" of the party's constituencies to explain and if necessary defend his leadership and his policies.
Ahead of an expected Ulster Unionist Council next month where Mr Jeffrey Donaldson will again effectively challenge his leadership, Mr Trimble this week is meeting constituency officers and other grassroots unionists to outline the "vision, purpose and rationale" of his leadership, said party sources.
He and other UUP party officers meet in Belfast tomorrow night to hear legal advice on whether an Ulster Unionist Council meeting to debate the scrapping of disciplinary proceedings against Mr Donaldson and fellow dissident MPs Mr David Burnside and the Rev Martin Smyth is validly called.
Should the lawyers advise that the requisition is valid then another UUC meeting is likely to be held in early to mid-September. However, even if it is ruled invalid, party sources said Mr Trimble himself could call a UUC to try to face down the anti-Belfast Agreement Donaldson bloc of the party.
Those close to Mr Trimble said he was determined to pursue disciplinary action against the three MPs, who resigned the party whip at Westminster, precipitating this latest internal UUP crisis.
While Mr Trimble appears determined again to tackle his opponents, equally Mr Donaldson appears determined to confront the leader. Sir Reg Empey has been mooted as a "third way" leadership candidate but again the Trimble and Donaldson camps insist that there is no middle ground between the two sides and "this battle must be fought to the finish".
Party sources rejected suggestions that Mr Trimble's tour of the constituencies was an acknowledgement that he was under greater pressure than before from Mr Donaldson. In the last UUC in June, Mr Trimble defeated Mr Donaldson by 54 per cent to 46 but it would only take about 40 of the 860 UUC members swinging their votes to yield victory to Mr Donaldson.
"This is not a defensive tour, he is going out there to explain why his policies and his leadership are the correct course for the party to take," said a senior Trimble supporter.
This same source, however, acknowledged that Mr Trimble has come in for criticism for not dealing directly with grassroots Ulster Unionists and that he was using this "whistle-stop tour to get out there and talk to people".
In advance of the next Trimble-Donaldson UUC confrontation, the party is breaking into three camps, the Donaldson and Trimble blocs and a third grouping who believe that former minister in the Northern Executive Sir Reg Empey could emerge as a compromise leader and heal some of the divisions in the party.
One senior party figure said "quite a number of people are coming to the conclusion that David Trimble should be asked to stand down as leader". He believed that the vehemently anti-Belfast Agreement wing of the party could accept Sir Reg Empey as leader "if Jeffrey is running business at Westminster".
Trimble supporters have already dismissed this suggestion, stating that it did not make any sense to replace a pro-agreement leader with another pro-agreement unionist who was not an MP.
Donaldson supporters were equally adamant that there "is no third way". Said an Ulster Unionist close to Mr Donaldson, "Do you think Jeffrey is going to step aside for Reg when he has the same policies as David Trimble? That wouldn't change anything." The same source said that Mr Donaldson wanted to be leader but was prepared to be "collective" in terms of sharing out responsibilities and trying to mend fences. "But you can't have two leaders," he added in reference to the suggestion of the so-called "dream team" of Sir Reg Empey and Mr Donaldson running the party.
What finally happens remains unpredictable but increasingly the scene is being set for a possible final showdown between Mr Trimble and Mr Donaldson, which could result in a split similar to the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats rupture of the 1980s.