Artful Ahern may face rumblings of future heave

ALL that was absent from Bertie Ahern’s attire of yellow trousers and light jacket at the G8 summit on Sea Island in Georgia was a Panama hat.

But if our home-grown version of the Man from Del Monte spent most of the last week in exotic climes saying yes, he's likely to find that the great unwashed back home said no yesterday, where it mattered at the polls.

To quote an immortal bard, two out of three ain't bad. But for Mr Ahern, it's likely that the only poll of the three conducted yesterday that will give succour is the referendum which, on the basis of the clever scare tactics used by the Government, will be comfortably passed.