THE Ulster Unionist leader, Mike Nesbitt, is the epitome of a reasonable, thoughtful individual. At times, he appears unsuited to the bear pit of Stormont or indeed politics.
Taking on the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party is like trying to re-float the Titanic. To double the misery by taking the health portfolio seemed insane.
As others in political life have found out, it is hard to do two jobs. The Ministry of Health is a poisoned chalice, and that’s the very reason both the DUP and Sinn Féin dodged the opportunity to take on the post.
The Ulster Unionist party is less of a political party and more of a loose association of various independent-minded unionists.
Nesbitt saw straight off that Brexit would be a calamity for Northern Ireland and even more so for unionism. Unfortunately, some of his colleagues were not blessed with such clear vision.
In open defiance of the leader who was then Nesbitt, some unionist veterans were as xenophobic and blinkered as the most enthusiastic cheerleaders in the DUP and TUV for the Leave campaign.
Disaster did follow.
Nesbitt resigned, only to be followed by several short-lived and unsuccessful stewardships. So cometh the hour, cometh the man when the well-intentioned Doug Beattie threw in the towel.
There were few options left for Nesbitt or the Ulster Unionists. But after two years in the post, the nice guy of politics seems uncertain and has been pondering whether he has enough left in the tank to see out the Assembly term in both posts.
To give any new leader a chance in the forthcoming Assembly and local government elections in 2027, Mike would need to relinquish his crown by spring of 2026.
No doubt he would like to finish the job at the Department of Health, but ultimately that would be in the gift of the new leader, and there is not a raft of baubles to give out to the loyal.
Nor is the party stacked with leadership talent. The obvious successors are the extraordinarily decent, family man and former fire fighter Robbie Butler, and the newbie on the block, the ubiquitous and seemingly ambitious former cop and commentator John Burrows.
Burrows is certainly enthusiastically throwing himself into Assembly debate, but he is electorally untested. If he were successful, all three unionist parties in the Assembly would uniquely fight the election with their Assembly leaders having not been elected to office.
Whoever succeeds, they should leave the current minister in situ at health until the end of the current mandate. (Though I would not be confident enough to bet on the Executive reaching the end of its term, given the amount of antipathy and verbal jousting between DUP and Sinn Féin. As they say, it’s become personal)
Nesbitt has proven himself to be of mettle in ministerial office. Despite his party’s sole ministry at the Executive table, he has not allowed himself to be cowed or silenced by Sinn Féin or the DUP.
In fact, he’s hitting out hard and won’t let himself get squeezed.
Nesbitt has shown grit in dealing with belligerent resident doctors, grumbling GPs and nursing unions. He simply can’t give what he does not have, but he’s right to overspend because health is literally a matter of life and death.
The Northern Ireland health service has been crumbling for decades and, unlike the NHS under Wes Streeting, seems incapable of reform.
While Streeting has access to many levers to cut waiting lists and reconfigure, Nesbitt has not. This is one of the reasons he has been using one option open to him: sending patients to the Republic to see consultants and have surgery.
Last week, he went further by saying he welcomed further north-south cooperation in health service provision in a small island with limited resources and struggling hospital infrastructure.
He said he didn’t fear cross-border and joined-up healthcare provision. That’s real leadership.