Ulster Unionist leader Reg Empey has revealed that he has been meeting leading loyalists since last August in attempts to persuade them to give up violence. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have been overly successful, with the IMC reporting in January that the UDA continued to be involved in targeting, shootings, assaults, drug dealing, extortion, production and sale of counterfeit goods, money laundering and robbery, while the UVF were still a "serious threat to the rule of law" and remained "active, violent and ruthless".

Empey believes that unionist parties "had a special responsibility to persuade the loyalist paramilitaries to commit to purely peaceful means." This certainly seems to fit with the belief of Sinn Fein, that unionist parties have a responsibility to bring about the end of loyalist activity.

The question remains though, what can Unionist politicians, too often seen by loyalists as soft on, or ineffective against, the IRA, do to bring about the end of the current situation where small groups of self-proclaimed "defenders" plague their communities, extorting and robbing from local businesses, dealing drugs and generally getting up to no good?

Sir Reg seems to think its about building confidence in the communities concerned, but what's not clear is how this can be done. Most people agree that the loyalist groups need to go away, but nobody seems to have a coherent and effective strategy to make this happen.