Mr David Trimble and Mr John Taylor are disingenuous in arguing that the fundamental principles of unionism prevent them from talking to members of the Government about internal matters in the North, specifically the question of elections. Whether or not there is an elected body, as the Ulster Unionists have urged, is not purely an internal matter. If it is to be a negotiating chamber in which all the political parties can have their say, as Mr Trimble consistently states, it will inevitably be part of a much wider set of structures designed to end the divisions in the North permanently.
Or is this, in the UUP leader's mind, not sob Suspicions voiced by nationalists that the proposal represents both the beginning and the end of Ulster Unionist ambitions are not silenced by his current tactics. Both he and Mr Taylor know beyond a shadow of doubt that there is an integrality about the current attempt to find a lasting peace in which there is no place for arbitrary exclusions. Both governments are necessarily involved, and any settlement squaring the circle of unionist expectations and nationalist demands (the nouns are interchangeable) will depend for success on endorsement and support from Dublin as well as London.
Mr Spring was right to point out in the Dail yesterday, in answer to Mr Taylor's hyperbolic accusation that he was "detested" in the North, that it was not necessary to like one another "but ultimately we will have to live and work together". There was dignity and common sense in that response: attributes that are sorely needed if a way is to be found out of the present impasse.
Undoubtedly more is happening than meets the eye, but the time must come when there is less emphasis on attitudes being struck for public consumption by the opposing communities and more on leadership to prepare the ground for change. Mr Major's crude handling of the Mitchell Report - whatever about his motives or the pressures to which he was reacting - created the worst possible climate for achieving his stated object of providing a viable alternative to decommissioning. Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein had already made it clear that they were not receptive to the idea of elections when first put forward by Mr Trimble last autumn. That did not rule it out as an option, but it ought to have indicated to the British prime minister the need for circumspection in adopting it, seemingly undigested, as the policy of his government.
If there have been signs of movement in the last two weeks, it is largely because of the patient efforts by the Taoiseach and by Mr Taylor's belie noire, the Tanaiste, to salvage something from that potential disaster, and see how elections fit into the larger picture. Mr Trimble may be narrowing the ground which he was apparently opening up when he put the notion of an elected body forward in the first place. It will not help his case. Not least by casting a smokescreen around his intentions.
Today's inter governmental meeting may help to clarify some of the issues and show if it is realistic to expect the target of all party talks by the end of this month to be achieved. But it is more important to clear away the sense of a multiplicity of diverging agendas than it is to meet an artificial deadline.