Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey’s plan to move his party closer to the Conservative Party has been criticised as “fantasy” and “unbeneficial”. Here he explains why he has set up the new links

I have to admit that I am a little disappointed by what seems to be a knee-jerk reaction from some Belfast Telegraph columnists to the news that the Ulster Unionist Party has agreed to form a working group with the Conservatives.

Lindy McDowell (July 26) says that the UUP is “going nowhere until it wakes up, shakes up and revamps”. Well, that's exactly what the party has done. A few weeks ago, at the end of a year-long internal review, our Executive unanimously endorsed a raft of Standing Orders embracing central membership, discipline, communications, candidate selection, constituency organisation and administrative structures. So yes, Lindy, the UUP has woken up and refashioned itself.

She goes on to describe the proposed links between the Conservatives and UUP as “mutually unbeneficial”.

Why does she believe that? Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom (guaranteed under the Belfast Agreement) and many of the socio-economic problems faced by people here are also faced by our fellow citizens in England, Scotland and Wales. Surely it makes sense to explore the possibility of UK-wide responses and policies to those problems?

I believe that there are potential benefits for Northern Ireland if its political parties are seen to be involved in the “bigger picture” approach to politics. Equally, David Cameron and I are anxious to address the threat posed to the United Kingdom by the growth of nationalism. If those who believe in the Union and constitutional integrity of the UK — and the UUP and Conservatives certainly do —aren't prepared to fight for it, then who will?

Gail Walker (July 29) asks why “the UUP should be thinking of closer co-operation with the UK Tories, leading to eventual merger, is quite a puzzler”.

First of all, we have only committed ourselves to the formation of a working group that will examine how we might create a new political and electoral force in Northern Ireland. We have not agreed any template. Also, the reason we are considering closer co-operation is precisely because we have identified areas of common interest. And her concerns about Lady Hermon being “isolated” are misplaced. Lady Hermon has joined the working group and will be involved at every level of the subsequent process.

But what disturbed me most about Gail's piece was her very dismissive attitude towards “normal politics? the fantasy of the local chattering classes”.

Devolution will serve no purpose and make no long-term difference to Northern Ireland if we assume that political activity and input can never rise higher than the purely local. We are facing huge economic challenges and there will be some enormously difficult decisions to make on health, education, social security and pensions.

How, exactly, do we provide stability, attract investment, dismantle sectarianism and shore up confidence in the devolved institutions if we condemn ourselves to the same-old same-old and expect others to pick up the bills and sort out our problems?

Readers are reeling from rising food, fuel and energy bills, which will really kick in this winter. These need national as well as local responses. Better that we have real input into the polices that can address these problems, rather than be mere spectators.

Anyway, why shouldn't a pro-Union party here establish solid links with a pan-UK party? Sinn Fein is an all-Ireland party. The Green Party has links across the UK and Ireland. The Alliance Party has links with the Liberal Democrats. The SDLP has been in talks with both Fianna Fail and the Irish Labour Party. I acknowledge her point that the relationship between the UUP and Conservatives was strained post 1972; but we mustn't allow the mistakes and disappointments of the past deter us from reassessing a relationship and maybe even rebuilding it.

It is worth bearing in mind, too, that there has also been a quite clear shift in Conservative thinking. This is what David Cameron said two weeks ago: “I would like to see us establish a new political force in Northern Ireland that is both Conservative and Unionist; that can say to people, look, get beyond the politics of constitution or orange or green.” That is more, much more, than the usual promise to honour the constitutional guarantee. It seems to me to be a genuine attempt to give substance to mere words. Let's be honest, there were far more hurdles to clear and risks to be taken in the UUP's decision to stay in the Talks process with Sinn Fein in 1997.

Northern Ireland is a better place today than it was in 1997. There are grounds for confidence and a framework for opportunities that were, literally, unimaginable in the early 1990s. The country is emerging into new political and economic realities and there is a palpable determination across communities and classes to seize those opportunities, to move ahead and to build a new Northern Ireland.

The existing stalemate between Sinn Fein and the DUP — which has prevented the Executive Committee from meeting and taking decisions — must not be allowed to steer people to the conclusion that politics can't work here. The Ulster Unionist Party believes that there has to be something better to offer the electorate; namely, radical political change which will address the needs of a 21st Century Northern Ireland.

If nothing else, our ongoing talks with the Conservative Party have opened up a possible route to something much more productive than the present stalemate. Politics is about the willingness to explore all options. That is why the Ulster Unionist Party engaged in the Talks process that produced the Belfast Agreement. It is why we are talking to the Conservative Party now.