The SDLP has reacted furiously to the British government's decision to incorporate "the Royal Ulster Constabulary" in the formal legal title of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland.
As British ministers overruled objections by Dublin and the SDLP to accept a key Ulster Unionist amendment to the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill at Westminster last night, the SDLP's chief whip, Mr Eddie McGrady, warned that the "one-off opportunity" presented by the Patten report "could yet be squandered".
During the final session of the standing committee on the Bill, the Minister of State, Mr Adam Ingram, assured Mr McGrady that the new name, "The Police Service of Northern Ireland", would be "the only name" that could be used for operational purposes.
Accepting the New Clause proposed by Mr Ken Maginnis MP, Mr Ingram said it required further technical amendment to embrace also the RUC Reserve, and that he would also bring forward an amendment to define "operational purposes" as meaning "all working, public, legal and ceremonial purposes".
Despite these assurances, Mr McGrady forced a division on the UUP proposal and found himself in the unusual position of being defeated by a government/Conservative/Lib Dem/Ulster Unionist combination by 17 votes to one.
A short time before Mr McGrady found himself alone in support of his party's contrary New Clause proposing, consistent with Patten, that "the Royal Ulster Constabulary shall be known instead as the Police Service of Northern Ireland".
As constitutional lawyers and legal advisers to both parties began preparing their interpretations of the legal quagmire, Mr Ingram explained that he could not accept the SDLP proposals on the name change because they did not fairly reflect the "continuity" of the body of constables now known as the RUC.
While accepting that the RUC title had become politicised and should be changed, argued Mr Ingram, the Patten report had not accepted that the RUC be disbanded and had said the link between the RUC and the new police service should be recognised.
It was for that reason, said Mr Ingram, that the government could accept Mr Maginnis's amendment, which made the necessary connection through the formal title, "while accepting the new working name for operational purposes".
British ministers believe that a significant breakthrough was actually made last night in the whole policing debate, with the Conservatives backing Mr Maginnis's two-part New Clause which accepts the reality of the new name.
New Clause 8 of the Bill now stands:
"(1) The body of constables known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary shall continue in being as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (incorporating the Royal Ulster Constabulary);
(2) The body of constables referred to in (1) above shall be styled for operational purposes the `Police Service of Northern Ireland'. "
However, as negotiations continued to the last minute on Mr Ingram's emergent definition of "operational purposes", Mr McGrady appeared unconvinced by the legal distinctions and expressed his fear of the consequences.
Dismissing "the convolutions" of Mr Maginnis's proposal, Mr McGrady said it did not "reflect Patten or parity of esteem . . . or a new beginning from the old history".
The Minister had described the new formulation as the formal title and Mr McGrady told the committee: "If that's the formal title, that's the title", adding his fear that it "could put all we have been trying to do in reverse".
And in a surprise further twist Mr McGrady - who voted with Mr John Hume and Mr Seamus Mallon for the Bill at its Second Reading - tried to block its further progress, unsuccessfully dividing the committee on the formal proposal that it should report back to the Commons.
The Report Stage is on Tuesday.