Is this the end of Cameron's NI ambitions?

The news that the Ulster Unionists' only MP is quitting the party to stand as an independent in the general election is surely going to hurt the Conservative's ambitions to win seats for the first time in Nortern Ireland.

Having already ostracised the other NI parties by entering an electoral agreement with the only party to oppose the devolution of police and justice powers to the province, this looks like it might well be the death knell for this particular experiment.

Whether it was for profoundly decent philosophical reasons, or as a cynical attempt to secure an extra vote or two in the event of a very close election outcome, David Cameron's bid to get MPs elected in NI under the Conservative banner now looks in tatters. With no sitting MPs, and with disastrous results at the last elections, the UUP now looks like a millstone around Cameron's neck. Whlst Sylvia Hermon was still on board, the plan still had hope. But without even her, it is surely finished.

George Bush rubbing salt into Cameron's NI wound

David Cameron's grand plan to stand candidates in Northern Ireland has come a cropper. As the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Tories have come under pressure to live up to their name and stand in Northern Ireland.

They did this under their own banner in the past only to be humiliated at the polls. So Cameron launched a grand plan to merge with the Ulster Unionist Party. Except that it wasn't a full merger, just an agreement to stand candidates under a joint banner.

Well the plan has now come back to slap Cameron.

The UUP is holding out against the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont and will vote no today when the matter is put before the NI Assembly. They are the only party who will vote this way and the measure will still pass but their opposition takes on a much greater magnitude as they are the electoral ally of the man presumed to be the next UK Prime Minister.

So step forward George W Bush to rub salt into the wounds. In what I think is his first act I have ever laughed at, he has publicised his telephone call to Cameron to ask him to reverse the position of the UUP. Cameron has failed to do so and is therefore coming across as weak on Northern Ireland - exactly the sort of image that a wannabe Prime Mioniter cannot afford to have.