Nominations of candidates for the Westminster election close on Friday so we don’t know all the runners and riders yet, but watching the parties jockeying for positions on the starting line is entertaining.

Alliance, the UUP and SDLP say they’ll stand in all 18 seats but Doug Beattie is such a ditherer he may yet pull out of North Belfast, as he did in 2019. Mind you, he’d be better pulling out his comedy colonel candidacy from North Down.

Alliance and the SDLP will stay in, but for different reasons.

Naomi Long’s party is trying to increase its presence across the north, instead of remaining confined to the greater Belfast area and a correlation with the number of golf clubs in a constituency.

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It is also anxious to sustain the canard that it has ‘surged’ to become a third element in politics after it came in with just under 17% in the 2019 general election. Since then Alliance has stuck at around 15%, so it will be anxious to maintain or improve on its 2019 figure.

© The Irish News