It is no secret that the Ulster Unionist Party desperately craves a return to Westminster, and like UKIP’s recent flirting with the Labour Party elsewhere, it is even willing to make a deal with its own devil, the DUP, to get what it wants. Surely any such deals are only short-sighted anyway, and surely the UUP’s objective ought to be concentrating on consolidating and increasing its representation and reach locally.

The UUP’s strategy should not entail entering into toxic ‘unity’ pacts for the sake of just one seat in London. Instead, it could look at forging a pact with the SDLP to leave the NI Executive and provide an alternative to the DUP-Sinn Féin coalition. This strategy would entail doing what is right for Northern Ireland democracy, embodying disaffection with the status quo, and grasping what could be the last opportunity for significant electoral gains.

Great politicians approach politics with ideas; a conviction and ability to set and control the agenda. The likes of Carson, Hume, McGuinness and Paisley fit this mould. Striking a unionist-unity deal to keep Sinn Féin at bay and for the sake of one Westminster seat out of 650, even if successful it is hard to imagine the UUP becoming a reinvigorated force to be reckoned with, at Westminster or at Stormont.

Bouncing back from the brink of irrelevancy will require instigating a sea change in the political set-up, and making courageous moves at broadening the party’s electoral base. The same goes for the SDLP. A pact with “your own” won’t advance chances of widening one’s appeal, and this is why Mike Nesbitt currently seeks the wrong kind of pact altogether. To do what’s right for Northern Ireland and the party itself, the UUP should avoid such pacts and prioritise the parliament offering the best chance of setting the local agenda: Stormont.