At DUP headquarters in east Belfast yesterday the party's election director, Mr St Clair McAllister, was complaining about the battle of the babies.
The DUP had produced a three-year-old for the attention of the media, the first baby born after the referendum, whose mother was now opposed to the accord.
The child was featured prominently in the media in 1998 as the referendum Peace Baby but, said her mother, how could she support the agreement with Martin McGuinness in charge of her child's education, and Bairbre de Brun responsible for her health? Mr McAllister's gripe was that, while some coverage was accorded to the child, the big picture this week was of President Clinton with Eli Mellor 92) in his arms in Enniskillen, obviously a pro-agreement toddler. "What'll we get next week?" he wondered. "U2, Tony Blair, singing children, dancing angels, everything under the sun."
Mr McAllister made no apology for the fact that the party is monitoring press and broadcast interviews. Radio and TV slots are timed with a stopwatch, press reports are measured.
The BBC and UTV say that they are balanced, that when coverage is measured over each week the parties get a good shout. Indeed, one would almost wish for a certain degree of imbalance, because the radio and TV coverage has been fairly anodyne so far.
This may be more the fault of the parties than the broadcasters, with the protagonists apparently reluctant to engage in round-table polemics with their adversaries. And the contest for the marginal seats rages on. Over in West Belfast this week Mr Gerry Adams predicted: "We are certainly going to win three seats." And then almost in the same breath: "But anybody who tells you how the voting is going to turn out is spinning."
Figure that, as the Americans say. There was no contradiction at all, insisted Mr Adams's chief spokesman, Mr Richard McAuley, obviously an expert in republican casuistry. The first element of the statement referred to the "local picture", as in Sinn Fein winning West Belfast, Mid-Ulster and West Tyrone, and, of course, expanding its council empire. The second element referred to the "broad picture", as in its being impossible to forecast what the overall results would be in terms of Yes versus No, Green versus Orange, and Sinn Fein versus SDLP politics. The Ulster Unionist First Minister, Mr David Trimble, had a good week, thanks to the selflessness of Alliance, which stood aside in North Down. In the Bangor sunshine Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party and Lady Sylvia Hermon were parading lovely linen suits and their respective anti- and pro-agreement unionist credentials.
Inter-unionist Yes and No rivalry notwithstanding, Mr Trimble wants to keep the unionist vote in the family. He offered "the traditional advice" yesterday: "Vote Ulster Unionist and then vote on and vote on for other pro-Union candidates."
Yesterday the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, crossed the Border to campaign for the SDLP. He joined Mr John Hume on a tour of George's Market, in Belfast. But for the SDLP and Sinn Fein the big concentration is on West Tyrone. If Brid Rodgers can take the seat then the SDLP's chances of withstanding the Sinn Fein juggernaut will be strengthened.
If Pat Doherty wins for Sinn Fein then Mr Adams will be even more confident that within five years his party will be the dominant force in nationalism in Northern Ireland.
The sitting UUP MP, Mr William Thompson, is keeping quiet in the hope that Sinn Fein and the SDLP cut each other's throats.
