There was a process in place at that time - the Downing Street Declaration of December 1993 - which set out the terms and conditions under which people who had been involved in paramilitary activity could come into the political process.

I was organizing a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in October 1994 and I got a message that the Prime Minister would like a meeting. I went to the meeting. It was just me and John Major.What Major said to me was this: "If you were in my shoes, what would you do?". He wasn't asking me what a unionist should do, but what he should do. And I knew that I had to give him a sensible answer.

We had the IRA ceasefire in August 1994 and a lot of people assumed that a deal had been done - which wasn't right.

As we take stock of this century of achievement, Ulster Unionists have every reason to feel proud.

The decision to give an indicative date for a return is a mistake. It degrades the process. It degrades human life.

The one thing I can assure you is that I'm not going to do a Prescott.

The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind - a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish.