Whip keeps agreement running

In the whips' offices in Leinster House, and over in Westminster, they heard the news with awe and admiration. Here was a prince among equals, a new name to be added to the list of great chief whips who could bully and coax the most recalcitrant of politicians to bend to their will.

Step forward Jim Wilson, Assembly member for South Antrim and Ulster Unionist Party chief whip, your time has come. There was talk that Roy Beggs jnr, maybe Billy Armstrong and Pauline Armitage as well, would defy David Trimble and vote with the anti-Belfast Agreement forces yesterday.

You could see it from the gallery. Some of the politicians opposed to the agreement were giving Mr Beggs a hard time. Could they turn him? But it seems he was dealt a harder time by Mr Wilson. Mr Beggs wasn't for turning. He knew better.

He looked uncomfortable and even a little shamefaced, but he followed the party line.

Peter Weir, the other UUP rebel, was a lost cause. He sat on the backbenches, away from his UUP colleagues, closer to the DUP benches. And that was the way he voted. And so the Belfast Agreement trundles on to its next obstacle.

It was a very big day at Stormont, although you mightn't notice. Despite the anti-agreement opposition, the Yes bloc primed the mechanism to create an executive, North-South bodies, a British-Irish council, and a civic forum. Who could have predicted that with certainty a few months ago?

It's down to Mo Mowlam to pull the trigger. That's expected sometime in March - perhaps. A few problems to be overcome in the meantime, however. Maybe that explains the element of anticlimax yesterday.

Willie McCrea reminded us of the shadow overhanging the Assembly, the issue that will tell us whether the progress made yesterday was real or illusory. "To D or not to D, that is the question," said Mr McCrea.

Willie got about as definite an answer as Hamlet did to his self-reflective question, which was no great answer at all.

Will Sinn Fein be in the executive? What will David Trimble do next? Will the IRA hand over a couple of ounces of Semtex and a few Kalashnikovs? We'll have to wait a few of weeks for the answers.

But if this all collapses come March 10th, or thereabouts, it was obvious from yesterday's discussions that even the anti-agreement politicians will be crestfallen.