Almost every single one of the constituencies contains a variable factor that will change the nature of the result from the overall picture presented by opinion poll statistics, no matter how elegantly balanced.

At this stage, if you’re presentable, reasonably lucid and prepared to promise bundles of new gardaí to improve the quality of everybody’s life, that will more or less do.

You know that juggler’s trick where they yank a table-cloth out from under the crockery, glasses and cutlery so suddenly that the table stays set, with every glass, plate and fork in the same position on the now-bare table?

IT’S well for some, that’s all I can say.

THE Fianna Fáil conspiracy theorists have it all worked out.

WHEN the national broadcasting station — in the days when there was only one national broadcasting station — sent out an invitation for families to compete in a quiz programme, I entered our family in the contest.

Charlie McCreevy was a great man for quoting himself.

YESTERDAY, at lunchtime, headed for a tiny seafront restaurant, I encountered a group of people in their late 20s or early 30s, accompanied by a couple of toddlers and holding on to the business ends of buggies laden with sleeping babies.

Knowing your competition and knowing your customer are vital in business. And in politics.

The strange thing is that you can do it without any qualifications.