The UUP is walking a trickier tightrope at Drumcree than is generally realised.

Leader Jon Burrows has set his party apart from the DUP and the TUV, but he still has to get an Orangeman elected in Portadown.

On September 14, the UUP’s Upper Bann constituency association selected Councillor Kyle Savage to run for Stormont next May.

That put the councillor in charge of the association’s election campaign, under a new strategy of local control promised by Mr Burrows.

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The sitting MLA, former leader Doug Beattie, quit the party in June after realising his days were numbered.

Among the reasons the constituency reportedly wanted to replace him was that he was too liberal. He remains in Stormont as an independent.

Cllr Savage comes from a well-known UUP family and has built most of his political profile around his farming background, but he is also an active member of his Donaghcloney lodge.

The constituency association posted a picture of him in his Orange regalia on September 18. One week later, the Parades Commission made its determination for a march on the Garvaghy Road.

Mr Burrows has taken a consistent line from that point, refusing........

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