Assembly election/overview:As the campaign goes on, hints of a deal emerge, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor.
The longer this election campaign rumbles on, the greater the sense that if there is no deal on or about March 26th then politicians will have a hard time explaining why not.
On Thursday the DUP said its first ministerial preference in the Northern executive was for the department of finance and personnel. Hey, doesn't that mean there is going to an executive, reporters and opposition politicians asked. Ha! But we didn't say when, was the diverting response of Peter Robinson.
And Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday was repeating his key phrase of the election (these are decided in advance by SF cabal), "The War is Over" on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme. Furthermore he wanted to make the Northern executive and Assembly "work".
But it won't be easy. There are still tensions in the DUP between its three camps - those who'd deal now, later or never. The Rev Ian Paisley, though, is the glue, and he probably can hold the disparate elements to his will, particularly if the DUP fares well on Wednesday.
Trust is also a huge issue. And that was exemplified by a unionist phone caller to Talkback, John, who had a unique view of Anglo-Irish history. He told Mr Adams that his family was in Ireland for 300-400 years and he could trace his ancestry to Brian Boru. If republicans wanted "Brits Out" where was he to go? The upshot of the exchange was Mr Adams inviting him to talk with him face-to-face.
John didn't want to be next nor near the Sinn Féin leader.
"But, John, you're talking to me now," said Mr Adams who, incidentally, denied Brian Boru was a Brit.
But that was by phone, said John, adding, "If I was standing beside you I would probably have my hands around your throat."
So, using that as a guide, be aware that if the Stormont government is reinstated it will, as Mr Adams also repeats and repeats, be "a battle a day" from here to close to eternity.
The Belfast Telegraph ran a poll this week, which had the DUP at 25 per cent, Sinn Féin at 22 per cent, the SDLP at 20 per cent, and the UUP at 16 per cent. Opinion polls are notoriously tricky in the North because of people's reluctance, particularly those who support Sinn Féin and the DUP, to state their true political allegiances. But as society gradually normalises here, it will be interesting afterwards to see if the poll reflects the result.
It again prompted the DUP's Peter Robinson to exploit the fear factor by warning that if unionists did not turn out in force and rally behind Dr Paisley, Sinn Féin could win more seats than the DUP.
But what should also upset unionists is that if the figures are accurate the likelihood is that rather than unionists having the advantage of six ministers to four, as it had in the last 2003 executive (if it had ever sat), it would be five ministers each for nationalists and unionists this time.
Finally, spare a thought for Rainbow George, who is standing in the four Belfast constituencies on a "make politics history" ticket. (It has a ring to it, you must admit). Rainbow George has stood in several elections and is considering running in all Dublin constituencies shortly. He funded his campaigns on the sale of a house in London for £710,000 two years ago, but whatever about politics he has made his bank balance history by blowing the lot on elections.
He has invested a last £200 at 250/1 with William Hills to take a seat. "That would win me £50,000, enough to pay £10 each for enough first preferences to get me in," said George, hope springing, as always, eternal.
