The clock is ticking, the bridges have been burnt and the stage is set. For many persons going hammer and tongs some blue ribbon summer holidays are now on the cards.

However, other persons may wish to tighten their purse strings till their ship comes in, unless they are seeing everything through rose-coloured glasses.

When the smoke clears the fools will rush in where Christmas angels fear to tread. Rather than just sit on their hands they will get cold feet and go down the tube.

But politicians on the crest of a wave and dressed to the nines know which side of their bread is buttered, while doing sums on the back of an envelope and robbing Peter to pay Paul even though the chips are down.

Having painted themselves into a corner and gone out on a limb, they think that all voters came down in the last shower and are still wet behind the ears and unable to separate the wheat from the chaff. So they bite their tongue.

In the meantime a lame duck minister who has the whip hand - and who likes talking through his hat while sitting on the fence - uses smoke and mirrors to sell snake oil to the public as he papers over the cracks.

Keeping his powder dry, he refuses to maintain a straight bat or play by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, telling his opponents to stick it up their guernseys because they are up the creek without a paddle and their aspirations will bite the dust.

Electors with broad shoulders who are long in the tooth and who distrust the fourth estate see the writing on the wall and realise that they have to mind their P's and Q's while dotting the i's and crossing the t's as they engage in paper warfare.

Apart from the elephant in the living room and the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, that is the ticket - unless they bite off more than they can chew.

For an old dog - especially one who is learning new tricks and hiding his light under a bushel - to look a gift horse in the mouth at this time of the year would be a red rag to a bull and not worth the candle, even if it is being burnt at both ends.

As is known to every schoolboy with an arrow in his quiver and a second string to his bow, a fly in the ointment with the runs on the board can open the floodgates of the silver bullets and seasonal magic puddings that are the hallmark of our lucky country.