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THE bright new face of the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force appears unsurprisingly somewhat familiar judging from the greying faces of the Ulster Unionist Party.

The tortuous selection process adopted means that both Northern Ireland Tories and the Ulster Unionists will respectively choose candidates in each constituency – and then, by a process of elimination, withdrawal, agreement or by magic, one candidate will then represent Empey’s Ulster Cameroons!

The devil is in the detail and how things will actually work out is probably only known to God.

Take Lagan Valley – the Ulster Unionists are proposing Lady Trimble, wife of the leading proponent of the Tory link-up David Trimble who is widely expected to get a ministerial role if the Conservatives win the next election.

The local Tories have chosen a local PR practitioner with limited political experience.

Surely the local Lagan Valley Tories will not snub the wife of the architect of the Tory/UUP

link-up for a political amateur?

Local MP Jeffrey Donaldson is likely to look on with some bemusement. One doubts that he is losing much sleep.

Although Lady Trimble, as one Ulster Unionist put it, “comes with some political baggage”, Donaldson knows that she is unlikely to be a walkover, unlike her Tory counterpart.

Though it has to be asked, why did Lady Trimble not just seek the Tory nomination?  After all her husband sits with the Tories and not the Ulster Unionists in the House of Lords.

One good thing to have emerged from the Tory/UUP link-up is the decision to run a candidate in every constituency.

The stench of sectarianism has lingered over unionist politics for far too long. At last, through the unlikely intervention of the Conservative Party, Unionists can no longer hide under the cover of the unifying umbrella of sectarianism which meant any hue of Protestant/unionist representation was preferable to any hue of Catholic/nationalist.

This is a most welcome move as Sinn Fein has over the past number of years tried to entice the SDLP into the nauseating notion of pan-nationalist unity which reduces all politics to the lowest common denominator – a sectarian bean count.

Many in the DUP are deeply uncomfortable with the UUP/Tory link-up, not least because some of the younger members were previously Young Tories before they became Unionists.

The DUP taunts to the UUP benches of being ‘Tory toffs’ will wear thin when someone finally gets around to releasing Tory membership records which no doubt contain the names of a few DUP politicians and a batch of their advisers.

One suspects that others in the DUP feel slightly out-flanked by the link-up which, when combined with the challenge of TUV, means the DUP must battle on two fronts.

On the other side of the House, the familiar face of the veteran Francie Brolly is about to go to pasture.

This is a loss to Sinn Fein as he was by all accounts a good political representative. At 71 he no doubt thinks he has done his bit.

He is probably right and soon the spotlight will turn to other political representatives, not only those in Sinn Fein but to all those who will be over 70 by the next election.

Currently the average age in Northern Ireland is 37 and 75 per cent of the population is under 65.

That has implications for all political parties. The new-look Tory/UUP won’t look so shiny if the candidates end up being the old ones just polished up.

The DUP has to be anxious about the ability of the sprightly octogenarian Dr Paisley if he does as promised and goes head to head with the dour but articulate Jim Allister.

The ghost of the decent but doddery Cecil Walker imploding his career live on TV still rattles the nerves of more than a few politicos.

Tony Blair retired after nearly 25 years at westminster at the tender age of 52, having been elected prime minister at 42.

Likewise, Clinton served two terms as governor by the age of 40. Cameron will be 48 if he becomes prime minister and President Obama is still only 48 too.

The irony of Northern Irish politics is that many of our politicians have been in the wings so long that they are already in their fifties and sixties before they come to prominence.

We are certainly not ageist when it comes to politicians who, like bishops, appear to have their gaze firmly fixed on eternity.