If you have put your money on the Labour/MMM alliance, this is not the time to quit the game. It has only just begun. Don’t pay any attention to the thumping of the chest on the one hand or the muscle flexing on the other. It is just playing to the gallery. Don’t pay attention to the threats and the snubbing. In politics as in marriage, they are part of the game. So is the threat of a no confidence motion in parliament. Who is delusional enough to table one and run the risk of it bouncing back? The very person who is sitting at home with doors, windows and transoms open waiting for the visitor to drop by? By the way, who exactly belongs to the opposition these days and who is negotiating their way into government? The line between parties has never been so blurred! So, when the prime minister told journalists, “Don’t worry about me”, he was right. We are not. The only people we are worried about are ourselves. The rest is politics which each member is playing according to his own style.

Paul Bérenger’s style is to begin negotiations and, when he does not have it his way, he calls a press conference, journalists run to him with two pages of what they know he will say – one with how great his ally of the day is and how well they will work together and the other with how corrupt, inept and unreliable the same ally is. After the conference – where journalists no longer need to take notes – they opt for one of the two pages, either last week’s or – more often – that of the week before last, and they rush back to their desks to announce to their readers whether Bérenger has said ‘on’ or ‘off’. Our lives as journalists have never been simpler. We only have to choose between two words: ‘on’ and ‘off’ on the one hand and ‘amerdé’ (cheesed off) and ‘ému’ (moved) on the other. We are moved by neither. And, you must have noticed the number of press conferences taking place these days. Not a single one is about a realistic proposal which might offer a serious alternative. All we are dealing with is who is likely to bring more votes to whom. Our ethnic calculators have never been as overused.

Navin Ramgoolam’s style is to negotiate in total secrecy with nothing coming out and, when he sees confidential discussions strewn all over the headlines, he goes back into hibernation. This time, Bérenger may have gone too far. Commenting on a serious leak, he said: “The prime minister might have thought that I gave the information to journalists!” No! Did he? Who would think that?

So, to give Bérenger a run for his money, Ramgoolam refused to even take Alan Ganoo’s phone call and made the statement that he cannot work with a gun to his head. Feeling scorned, Bérenger is trying to rally everyone to his cause. How long the sulking will continue is not certain. However, there is nothing uncertain about what is going on. It is politics 2014 style. Those who have made the right bets will soon have a lot of cash in the bank.