There is little about which to be optimistic ahead of the general election

THE omens are bad at worst; fair to middling at best. As the political parties limber up for the forthcoming election, there is little about which to be optimistic, writes Michael Clifford.

The campaign about to unfold will be governed not by any vision for the future, but by what the parties have been told that the voters want right now.

For the big parties, this information has been garnered from focus groups, assembled and interrogated to tell the parties what they should stand for. Fine Gael has been focus-grouped to within an inch of its life over the last year. Fianna Fáil needs much more than that to get its act together, despite being the party that introduced and promoted the use of focus groups over the last 15 years.