The battle lines between old and new unionism were drawn when the two contenders for the Ulster Unionist leadership, Mr David Trimble and the Rev Martin Smyth, met head to head in a TV debate last night.
While Mr Trimble replied in short, confident sentences, the strain was beginning to show on 68-year-old Mr Smyth after a long hard day on the media trail. "I will answer questions in my way, not yours", he barked at the UTV interviewer, who had attempted to cut through one of his longwinded sentences.
Earlier in the day, Mr Smyth appeared to have outmanoeuvred Mr Trimble in terms of time and venue for his press conference. The South Belfast MP, surrounded by his faithful (six, to be precise), held court in the Europa Hotel - the place where Mr Trimble had launched his own leadership campaign five years ago.
Flanked by his wife, the "two Willies", Mr Thompson and Mr Ross, Mr Peter King, Ms Arlene Foster and Mr Tom Robinson, Mr Smyth insisted that he was not yesterday's man. In fact, he stood a good chance of beating Mr Trimble, the former Orange grand master assured the tightly packed media, his eyes shining under the trademark bushy eyebrows.
"Where is Jeffrey [Donald son]?" a journalist asked in reference to the Lagan Valley MP, who has indicated that he will back Mr Smyth. "On the radio", Ms Foster replied.
Asked about his policies, Mr Smyth said that the current assembly was "not the proper way". Was he in favour of power-sharing with republicans at all? Mr Smyth, for once, gave a short, if slightly cryptic, answer: "Let's say, if Sinn Fein were secondhand car dealers, would you buy another car off them if you knew they didn't deliver on the first one?"
Half an hour later, the UUP leader, Mr Trimble, was radiating confidence in the reassuring surroundings of the party headquarters in Glengall Street. Flanked by no fewer than 18 Assembly members, their expressions ranging from stern to positively buoyant, he seemed determined to deal with his detractors once and for all.
As they entered the room and took their seats, Mr Trimble, the party chairman, Lord Rogan of Iveagh, and the two MPs, Mr Ken Maginnis and Mr John Taylor, were greeted with applause.
For a few painful seconds Mr Trimble's tone was reminiscent of Julius Caesar's "Et tu, Brute" when he said that, frankly, he would have expected the challenge to come from the long-time dissident Mr Willie Ross rather than from his parliamentary party chief whip, Mr Smyth.
"It is not a good morning when we face the sad sight of unionists fighting each other yet again instead of the enemy", Mr Trimble said reproachfully.
The UUP leader then respectfully described his opponent as "a substantial figure within the party". He denied that Mr Smyth was only acting as "John the Baptist" to a future Ulster Unionist "Jesus", possibly Mr Donaldson, as one journalist suggested. In a more conciliatory version of "put up or shut up", Mr Trimble said he hoped the dissidents would accept the council's decision, no matter what it was. The Greek chorus mumbled approval.
The press conference over, male Trimble supporters gave media interviews, while one party executive member, Ms May Steele, was busy spreading blueberry jam on scones. Somehow, it seemed that new unionism was not that new after all.