If the general election comes down to beauty contest choice for Taoiseach, Fine Gael and its alliance with Labour will be in trouble. When it comes to personality politics, Bertie Ahern wins hands-down with the public.

It's one of the problems of ideology-free politics . . . campaigns become presidential. The opposition cannot allow the contest to go that way. Its most promising ground is to keep coming back to the government's record. Fianna Fail and the PDs have had successes and failures over the last decade. The task of the opposition is to focus on those failures. Bertie Ahern's clumsy ardfheis speech has left room for the alternative to steer the debate back around to the government's record of delivery since 1997.

Since the last general election, Fine Gael made most gains with its Broken Promises campaign. For some time the party's web-friendly friends have been doing a good job poking fun at Martin Cullen and others in the current cabinet. The most effective video remains the one set to the song, 'Send in the Clowns' (check it out on Youtube).

Fianna Fail and the PDs should be out of this contest.

They are not and Fianna Fail looks a good bet to be back in power. What the opposition must fear most is the possibility that the forthcoming contest mirrors the Westminster general election in 1992. Then, British voters tired of 13 years of Tory rule looked warily at Neil Kinnock before reluctantly returning the Conservatives for another term.

Enda Kenny may now be a problem for the alternative but as Bertie Ahern showed at Citywest two weeks ago, the clowns could still throw it away.

A cross beside his name A MOTLEY crew of political wannabes are gathered together in the latest edition of the Dublinermagazine which focuses on 29 new candidates contesting the forthcoming general election. Most are well schooled in the art of not answering a straight question.

Far more interesting is the magazine's Eastertheme vox pop on the streets on the capital. "If you could crucify one politician this Good Friday, who would it be?" the punters were asked. By overwhelming acclamation PD leader Michael McDowell was nailed to that cross. "He's not just arrogant, he's power hungry, " Aoife Kelly from Tullamore says.

Meanwhile over at Villagemagazine there was some amusement in a Q&A session with Fine Gael's Olwyn Enright. "Since you are goodlooking yourself why did you join a party whose males are all badlooking (aside from your husband)?" the magazine asked. "I'll take the compliment . . . but I think you're looking at the wrong party.

My husband is one of many attractive men in Fine Gael.

Look at the roadside election posters . . . you'd think some of our candidates were taken straight out of a Tommy Hilfiger ad (to get this effect you need to drive past them very quickly, at night, in the rain), " Enright replied.

FINE Gael last week published legislation which would mean all future general elections had to be held on either a Friday, a Saturday or a Sunday. The party, however, stopped short of endorsing the idea of a "xed-term Dail. The nonsense debate continues about when Bertie Ahern will name the date. Certainly, Fine Gael supporters in London will be hoping Ahern doesn't stretch the campaign into early June. Moor Park golf club in Hertfordshire is the venue for the party's London Golf Classic on 4 June. Still, if the election takes place in May, Moor Park could be a good place to either disappear out of sight or to open another bottle of champers.

The final act?

FIANNA Fail's troublesome senators grew to a band of two last week with Margaret Cox joining Liam Fitzgerald on the political sidelines.

There's a touch of the final sting of the dying wasp about their respective actions. Cox failed to win a Dail seat in Galway West both in 1997 and in 2002.

After a long parliamentary career representing Dublin North East, Fitzgerald lost his seat in 1997 and was not selected in 2002. When it came to endorsing candidates for the forthcoming contest, Fianna Fail headquarters gave both senators the cold shoulder.

If neither could get elected with the backing of their party, they are highly unlikely to succeed if they opt to go the independent route.