An excellent piece in The Blanket by Dr John Coulter who maintains that if the UUP suffer another electoral hammering in May from the Paisleyites,they should merge with the DUP to form a single movement called 'The Unionist Party'.

Coulter argues that the formation of this single, clearly Right-of-centre political movement should be quite capable of swallowing up working class loyalist votes currently held by the PUP and the UPRG.

Coulter speculates on suggestions that a group of UUP plotters are deliberately ensuring the party chooses low-profile candidates for the forthcoming Westminster election with the DUP for the handful of remaining UUP seats.
According to Coulter,the plotters will be urging the party to put all its electoral efforts into East Belfast to help Reg Empey defeat Peter Robinson.
They believe that a post-Paisley DUP led by Nigel Dodds could naturaly merge with an Empey-led UUP rump of a few dozen councillors dotted across the North and only two MPs.

I find these suggestions quite troubling as such a party would no doubt be a force to be reckoned with.Nationalism benefits when unionists are at each other's throat!
Overall the article is very interesting and I urge you to read it.