Shaking hands as I did last week with the Conservative leader, David Cameron, I had the chance to ask him about his aspiration to link his party to the Ulster Unionists.

His view was emphatic: “Personally, it’s a no-brainer” he told me in the plush surroundings of London’s Lanesborough Hotel, before he lunched with and addressed a bunch of newspaper executives, editors and Westminster correspondents.

How far, I thought to myself, had he and the Conservatives come from that distant day in March 1972, when the old Stormont parliament was suspended by Prime Minister Edward Heath. His act destroyed any trust that remained between the Ulster Unionists of those times, led by the late Brian Faulkner, and Heath’s governing Tories.

I recall interviewing Faulkner after his fateful day in Downing St when Heath made up his mind to suspend the Stormont parliament. A Secretary of State for Northern Ireland would take its place. Direct rule, it would be. Relations with the London Tories were never the same again.

The writing was on the wall for the Conservative’s link with the Unionists. The alliance at Westminister ended in 1974 in protest against the Sunningdale Agreement but there remained a loose association until 1985 when Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish agreement. Now we face the prospect of a renewed amalgamation for next year’s European election and for whenever the next Westminster contest takes place.

I got the impression during my brief encounter with Cameron that he was more than a little frustrated that his party and the Ulster Unionists had, as he put it, “gone round in circles” on the topic of a new political marriage.

“We’re not doing all that well in Northern Ireland,” he recounted, “and neither are the Ulster Unionists”. Later, the Belfast Telegraph’s Westminster correspondent, Sam Lister, asked him to expand on his views. What was surprising was the extent to which he dwelt on her question with a detailed answer. The Cameron view is that his re-invented Conservatives must be the party of the United Kingdom — of Scotland, of Wales AND of Northern Ireland.”

Clearly, the idea of some form of merger with the Ulster Unionists has exercised Cameron’s mind for some time, despite the global distractions of the credit-crunch and many other national issues. It’s certainly a “no-brainer” from his side of the water since the Conservative party here barely registers on any political Richter scale.

The Ulster-based Conservatives are going nowhere on their own. The same might well be said of the Ulster Unionists, who, like the Social Democratic Labour Party, are minority players at Stormont, overshadowed and bullied by the big battalions of the DUP and Sinn Fein. Indeed, some might argue that during the five months deadlock at Stormont, the UU — and the SDLP — would have done better by withdrawing or resigning in principled protest from the Executive, rather than acquiesce as they have both done in the face of a thoroughly unsatisfactory period of government.

Like David Cameron, I can’t see what either the Conservatives or the Unionists have to lose in Northern Ireland by joining forces again. Unionism in 2008 is a far cry from the brand of unionism which existed when last there was a link with the Conservatives. In the new order of partnership politics at Stormont, it needs redefining.

Who or what is a unionist today? What does he or she stand for? And where is unionism heading in the years ahead? The answers to these questions are for Sir Reg Empey and Peter Robinson to give us.

I’ve a sneaking feeling that some unionists are more Ulster nationalist than United Kingdomers. They profess a loyalty to the Queen, just as many Scottish nationalists do, but beyond that they have little or no allegiance to Westminster politics, to British ministers or to direct rule. Are they really unionists at all?

Closer ties between the Ulster Unionists and the Conservative party offers the possibility of a real choice between the two big strands of unionism. It would be mighty interesting to see the voters respond.

This is a chance for the Ulster Unionists to escape from their current political doldrums, to get themselves noticed again at Westminster and regain some of the influence they once had.

Who knows they might even win a Cabinet posting if Cameron were to become Prime Minister.

The alternative is to remain where they are. No longer playing in the premiership. Somewhat politically impotent. A bit player in the Stormont Executive.

By joining forces with the Conservatives, Ulster Unionists could put clear blue water between themselves and the DUP. The Ulster Unionists need to reawaken their followers from a deep slumber. They must offer a well-defined alternative to the DUP otherwise they are consigned to becoming increasingly irrelevant.

To date, Ulster Unionists have come across as too wishy-washy, too vague, and too indecisive on too many issues. They persist in looking over their shoulders at those who have stolen already so much of their support. It’s time they looked straight ahead with a vision, a message and a strategy that the electorate can understand.

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I am delighted that newspapers across the UK have just won a significant victory over the BBC’s plans for the future. In a nutshell, the BBC wanted to spend £68m on expanding its internet services with more localised video news.

This would have impacted greatly on Northern Ireland’s newspapers, both daily and weekly. In the long term, I believe it would have led to some of our traditional and much cherished papers going to the wall with resultant redundancies.

Certainly it would have damaged the diversity of papers not only here but across the UK at a time when everyone is feeling the pinch of the recession.

The BBC Trust applied a ‘public value test’ to the plans and rejected them virtually out of hand, saying the money would be better spent improving the existing regional news services of BBC Northern Ireland and other regions.

The BBC, with so many billions of licence fee money, does not operate on a level playing field with the rest of the media. But, if the BBC Trust’s findings are anything to go by, the tide is turning and, in future, it will be made more accountable.