Election season winners will be the connoisseurs of political silliness

WHEN election fever is in the air, all politicians lose the run of themselves at some stage. This campaign has been no different.

Here is my selection of the most depressing outbreaks of election silliness in 2004.

One of the first outbreaks of the election sillies was the "baby bond" proposal which Pat Rabbitte unveiled at his party conference in April. He suggested that when each new child is born the taxpayer would put up €1,000 which would be invested on the child's behalf and cashed in when the child reached 18 years of age. As an election gimmick this one was right up there with Fine Gael's plan to compensate Eircom shareholders.