evidence: But as we have seen in the past branding is a tricky business and you can (as the UUP found under the UCU-NF coalition with the Tories in 2010) that just swapping names above the shop can lead to terminal confusion in your traditional voter base. [...] There are lessons in there not simple for the DUP’s new leadership and members but for most parties in Northern Ireland and indeed, as I made clear yesterday, across the UK, the US and mainland Europe, suffering from a hollowing of party systems. [...] This is definitely the case with the DUP, whose clever wheeze of getting the whole electorate to focus to the exclusion of all else on what is now the quinquennial contest over who is going to be First Minister (which has no more power than a DFM).