It is fascinating what you see on the streets of Kensington and Chelsea. Michael Portillo, the Conservative candidate in the by-election for the constituency, sweeps across the street to shake the hands of startled residents and the relaxed air of his campaign changes in a moment.
The route was checked in advance. Peter Tatchell and his Outrage! buddies are not hiding behind the lamp-posts ready to pounce with their posters and shouts of "shame".
Lord Archer is persona non grata so there is no chance of him turning up to embarrass the Portillo camp. So what's the problem?
It isn't a real problem, mind you, just a barely audible collective intake of breath from Portillo's minders when a voter challenges him on a real issue.
Cornered by a woman who is wearing a full set of dress pearls in the middle of the day and is straining to control a dribbling, mean-looking black labrador, there is a ripple of excitement among the fresh-faced young Tories hovering around Portillo when she tackles him on House of Lords reform.
Warming to her theme of Tony Blair's "semi-dictatorship", the woman condemns Queen Elizabeth and the Tories for not standing up to Labour to save the hereditary peers from being booted out of the Lords.
"A lot of people are saying that to me," admits Portillo helpfully, as he attempts to get a word in. "People feel let down," chips in the shadow chancellor, Francis Maude, who was probably told to come along to boost Portillo's campaign, but in reality is not needed at all because Portillo deals with this woman, and everyone else he meets, with charm and intelligence.
The Portillistas sense victory. Portillo turns on the campaign smile. It is instant and very broad.
"We didn't have the numbers to oppose it. The queen has to sign the Bills. That's part of the deal," Portillo says and then delivers the clincher: "That is why we have to win elections."
The woman is sent away with a shake of the hand and a promise that he will "do all I can" for her after the by-election and the Portillo machine moves on.
The thing about Michael Portillo is that you can imagine him doing everything he can for the people of Kensington and Chelsea because he is so very keen to get back into Parliament.
His reputation for toughness, narrow-mindedness and a general lack of compassion for single mothers and foreigners alike, has, he insists, been replaced with a less judgmental attitude to the span of human relationships.
Oh yes, and he isn't plotting to undermine William Hague's leadership, although few believe him on that one.
Yet on the Fulham Road the voters seem to believe him and if they don't, they don't care.
No one is interested in tackling him about the leadership or his "homosexual experiences". Peter Tatchell hasn't turned up since last week and only a few people whisper the dreaded name of Jeffrey Archer.
Lord Archer provides one of the few wobbly moments during Portillo's campaign. This week Labour exploited Portillo's support for the former candidate for mayor of London. They contrasted his line on November 13th that he would "give him all the support he gives me" with his reported comment on Monday that "I was not one who supported Archer".
Only one woman, another who is wearing a chunky string of pearls around her neck, has the temerity to draw attention to Lord Archer.
"I think it might affect some of the voters," she reminds him, "because it's the party you're attached to."
The real problem for Portillo in Kensington and Chelsea later today when the voters go to the polls will not be the effect of Lord Archer's lie about his 1986 dinner companion or the "foreign donations" scandal and businessman Michael Ashcroft. It could be voter apathy.
Only 54.7 per cent of the constituency turned out to vote in the general election in 1997 and with a Conservative majority of just over 9,000, Portillo's camp is worried that people might not bother to vote because they think he will win anyway.
After lunch at the Admiral Codrington pub in Mossop Street, the campaign smile is back on.
Men and woman stride across the street to shake his hand and the Portillistas hand out campaign leaflets.
Portillo concedes that the Archer affair has damaged the party and that everyone feels "let down", but he praises William Hague for moving swiftly against the disgraced peer and says he hopes that once elected to "K and C", he will be a help rather than a hindrance to the Tory party.
Towards the end of a long day pounding the streets, Portillo drops in on a group of elderly people playing cards at the Cremorne Sheltered Clubroom. The club is part of a mainly working-class housing estate behind the Fulham Road and even here, where we are unlikely to find any members of the local Conservative Constituency Association, Portillo gets a warm reception.
He chats with the ladies and asks them what they are playing. They say "cards" and the prize is a cup of tea.
A quick chat and Portillo is on his way, but not before one man makes a jokey reference to his Spanish roots, shouting: "Mr Portillo. Good luck in your future, adios." Portillo turns and smiles.
"Ha, ha, adios," he says, and it's back to the streets to meet the voters.
Rachel Donnelly may be contacted at rdonnelly@irish-times.ie