I don't belieeeeevvvvveee it! Ervine thinks that 'the state' created the LVF to cause a feud? Presumably he means Blair's government?

He further discreditted himself by saying that the UVF aren't listening to him anymore. Adding to the view that the PUP are increasingly irrelevant....

All the UDA men I know vote DUP and of the UVF men I know, most vote for the DUP rather than the PUP. The U.D.P. are extinct and the P.U.P. are being marginalised, with the DUP viewed as the answer to Unionism's leadership problems under Trimble.

Although not at all clued up on the ins and outs of the UDA or UVF - I assume that this analysis is more or less correct (otherwise the "loyalist" parties wouldn't have collapsed so completely).
So would it be fair to say (if this generalisation is true) that the DUP can now be considered as the legitimate voice of paramilitary unionism?
And if so - what is the party's responsibility to ensuring their disarmament? And what measures could be applied to ensure that the party does this and prevent any disruptions of any new dispensation?

It would be fair to say that the DUP are the party that the majority of members of the UDA/UFF and the UVF want to represent their constituencies in government, but unlike the now defunct UDP and the ailing PUP, the DUP are not the political wing, if you like, the "mouthpiece", of either of these organisations, so it would be wrong and unfair to lay the blame at their door for the lack of UFF and UVF disarmament...

But surely its not about laying blame at anybodys door, but rather political parties representing their voters.
If "the DUP are the party that the majority of members of the UDA/UFF and the UVF want to represent their constituencies in government" then they must express a poltical opinion that represents the UVF and UFF/UDA more than their own parties door - in effect they are the better mouthpiece. As such they surely have the responsibility of ensuring loyalist disarmament and of talking their electorate into this.
UVF and UVF men won't vote for a party that doesn't wnat them to be armed.

Is it just me or does a lot of the vehemence at the PUP have its basis in their support for the GFA? which is why the DUP have been at DE's throat for the last 8 years. He was the only one to confirm that the DUP flirted with the loyalist paramilitaries ("I have seen the wallpaper") I doubt that there is still any love lost between the more politically aware UVF and the DUP...Hell hath no fury like a political party whose pet paramilitary grows up...