On the most recent edition of Sunday Politics on BBC Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionist leader, Doug Beattie, was asked about whether his party will forgo its place in the Executive and lead the official opposition at Stormont when the institutions are restored.
There is speculation that the mood within sections of the party is to take up the sole ministerial position it is entitled to under the D’Hondt process. However, this would be a mistake and something that not only would hurt the UUP but also the necessary scrutiny that any new government needs.
The UUP has only opted to sit in opposition briefly from 2015-2017, and only a few months of that time was it recognised as an opposition within the assembly. The party has never had the proper time or space to make this role its own. It has never had a chance to properly create an image that is one of holding the Executive to account and proposing new policy ideas that can give it some much-needed definition in the eyes of the public.
The SDLP's Colum Eastwood and UUP's Mike Nesbitt previously led an opposition at Stormont PICTURE: MAL MCCANNAll of this can only be done from the opposition benches. We have seen time and again the UUP attempting to do this from........