Whichever of the two main Unionist parties in Northern Ireland is not providing the First Minister at the given time is always that much more sceptical about the whole thing, that much more Old Unionist.
That has been the UUP for quite a while now, and it looks likely to be the UUP for quite a while yet.
Thus, for example, it raised doubts about the devolution of policing and justice. But had the First Minister been drawn from the UUP, then it would have been the DUP that would have raised those very same doubts.
I am not saying that this is necessarily unhealthy. But it is the way in which Ulster Unionism now works.
The Conservative Party and UKIP are going a similar way.
Michael Fallon, who ought not to be the Secretary of State for Defence if he is capable of "carelessness", has found himself denounced by UKIP for his comments about immigration.
But of course, in the wildly unlikely event that the Secretary of State for Defence had been a member of UKIP, then the denunciation would have come from the Conservative Party.
Expect a lot more of this.
As the Conservatives seek to out-UKIP UKIP, expect a lot more from UKIP saying that the Conservatives are going too far.
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