‘GREATER love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life.’

This witticism, uttered by former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe about then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, perfectly encapsulates the lack of loyalty in politics.

Feeling the pressure of office, Macmillan dismissed a third of his cabinet during the infamous ‘Night of the Long Knives’. This led to his nickname ‘Mack the Knife’, a fitting moniker for the usually affable politician.

Since Macmillan’s time, this practice has been repeated by numerous politicians. After all, politics is fundamentally about survival, a cruel game of pass the parcel played out in public by competing participants masquerading as party colleagues.

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The Ulster Unionists should be well accustomed to the politics of fiasco, self-harm and cannibalism.

This pattern has been evident since the 1960s, resembling a litany of saints: O’Neill, Chichester-Clark, Faulkner, West, Molyneaux, Trimble, Empey, Elliott, Nesbitt, Swann, Aiken, Beattie, Nesbitt Mk2, and now Burrows.

Faulkner and Trimble’s betrayals exemplified that even true leadership and calculated risk-taking frighten the unionist base.

While O’Neill and Chichester-Clark’s intentions may have been good, they also highlighted that uniformed service doesn’t always translate to effective political leadership.

The military adage “excrement flows downhill” aptly describes this reality, and it’s not grasped by party members who prefer to be........

© The Irish News