Try though I might - which is not very hard, I admit - I cannot raise a flicker of interest in the state election campaign. It is like watching a football replay where you know the score: in this case, a crushing defeat for the home side. The Premier can announce new policies until her hairstyle goes limp, but it matters not a jot because they will never see the light of day.

All that is left is for state Labor to tie up a few loose ends for its property tycoon mates. This week's furtive trampling of the planning laws to allow the Barangaroo developer, Lend Lease, to build a car park on polluted waterfront land was a disgrace. But typical of this rotten mob.

That apart, you can tell the campaign is happening because every evening the TV news has shots of Kristina Keneally and Barry O'Farrell wearing hard hats and staring solemnly at some mysterious piece of machinery, or a steel girder, or whatever. The Opposition Leader sports a red hat. It looks like a cherry on a cup cake. The Premier has a white hat with the NSW waratah logo which, I imagine, she will have to turn over to O'Farrell when he wins. I'd keep an eye on that, Barry. It's public property, owned by the taxpayer.

You can never trust an outgoing government. I always liked the story of the Clinton staffers in the West Wing of the White House who removed all the W keys from their computer keyboards, throwing the incoming George W. Bush administration into three days of chaos. Taking the apostrophe keys might do likewise for the O'Farrell government. Just a thought. In the meantime, Barry, could you do something about Gladys Berejiklian's voice? It has the whiny insistence of a dentist's drill. I don't think I can take four years of it.

Mike Carlton