I very much want to welcome the fact that Upper Bann TUV Chairman Ivor McConnell has broken his long period of self imposed silence. Now that he has done so and felt able to put his foot back into the waters of public debate this would be a good time to try once again to get some answers from him regarding what exactly is going on in Upper Bann TUV.

TUV's Upper Bann representatives have tried to defend their policy of handing Sinn Fein an additional Westminster seat, Assembly seat and £1 million as a result of their quite deliberate vote splitting tactics.

However, their party leadership in conjunction with their party colleagues in Fermanagh decided to step aside in the Council by election in order to try to prevent Sinn Fein from winning only an extra Council seat. The reason given for this correct decision by the TUV leadership was their rejection of the very thing Upper Bann TUV proposes - splitting the Unionist vote.

If Upper Bann TUV is in the situation where the winner of a seat at Westminster was either David Simpson or John O'Dowd would they split the vote or stand aside and who would they ask their supporters to vote for? Similarly if they were in a situation where the winners of an Assembly seat was either George Savage or Dessie Ward would they split the vote or stand aside and again who would they ask their supporters to vote for?

We know the answer that Fermanagh TUV would give - they would stand aside in the best interests of Unionism. We know the opinion of the TUV Central Committee - it would endorse a decision to stand aside in the best interests of the Union. What we don't know is where does the Upper Bann branch stand.

Now that Ivor McConnell has found his voice again, perhaps he, as the most senior TUV representative in Upper Bann might let us know.