Enter stage left, quote Beckett and exit, pursued by a dilemma

DAVID NORRIS entered stage left for the final command performance of his often precarious presidential campaign.

The media scrum that had been expecting Norris to emerge from his elegant Georgian front door was taken by surprise and swirled to envelop him as the two became momentarily locked in an uneasy embrace before he broke through the pack, past the tastefully erected velvet rope and took up position behind the impromptu mic stand.

An unashamed armature thespian to the last, Norris finished on a flourish of Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”