Wallace Thompson is a DUP lifer. A founding member of the party, he was close to the former leader Ian Paisley for decades, sharing his conservative social worldview as well as his unyielding unionist politics. He's an evangelical Christian opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage and a member of the independent Orange Order. But despite all of that, Wallace Thompson is convinced that constitutional change on the

island of Ireland is now an inevitability.

And he's not afraid to say that, in his view, unionists need to engage in the public

conversation that's taking place about future Irish reunification.

So in this edition of Red Lines, we'll hear in detail from Wallace Thompson about what he believes is coming down the tracks, how unionists should respond to that challenge, and what he says to his critics within unionism, who believe he's surrendering his principles by even taking part in the debate.

He's just one man and he has no electoral mandate.

But because of who he is and what he says, he's worth listening to. You've talked about in the past about the need for unionists to be

prepared for what's coming. As far as the constitutional debate on this island is concerned,

Wallace, what precisely should unionists be preparing for?

I think, Mark, that unionists need to be preparing

for the movement towards some form of New Ireland.

Now, I'm not saying that's going to happen soon.

I mentioned in my interview in the Telegraph,

Belfast Telegraph with Sam Mc McBride, that it was inevitable.

That word has come back to haunt me to some degree.

But I do believe that decades down the road, I think we are talking decades, the union, as we know it, will come to an end.

And there will be a new constitutional arrangement. I think we need to be far-sighted

enough to think about this, to talk to each other about it, and to talk to nationalists and

Republicans about it as well. So constitutional change in your view is inevitable. Is this debate

that you want to engage in then about preparing unionism

for it from a position of strength to lessen the worst possible aspects of whatever this New

Ireland might be? Is that the strategy? That's the strategy. And my thinking, and it's purely me speaking

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