A rather interesting form of attempted political wooing could be observed last week.

 

The 'lovebombing' involved two of Westminster's smaller parties.

Neither has a hope of power without joining with either Labour or the Tories.

And blink and you might have missed Ukip's attempt to butter up the DUP.

Ukip Deputy leader Paul Nuttall said he was keen to work with the Northern Irish party at Westminster, pointing to their joint stance on an In/ Out referendum on the European Union.

They could work together, he said, to push for an early vote.

But it was Mr Nuttall's language which was perhaps the most interesting part of the exercise.

At Westminster., he said, the two parties would be a "pretty substantial bloc".

"Ourselves and the DUP combined may well have more seats than the Liberal Democrats, which then could change the dynamic in Westminster altogether," he added.

Behind the scenes at Ukip some cold hard calculations are going on.

Because for all the "earthquake" (trademark Nigel Farage) that the party has caused in UK politics - and it is arguable that David Cameron would never have pledged an EU referendum in 2017 without the rise of Ukip - the party is unlikely to take many seats in May.

There is no denying that it is doing well in UK-wide opinion polls.

Some put Ukip running at 15 per cent., astonishing for a party that polled just 3 per cent in 2010.

But, and it is a big but, even if that vote holds up between now and May it is likely to leave Ukip battling to take - at best - only a handful of seats.

The party is forecast to be a victim of the First-Past-the-Post system, its supporters too scattered to come first in many constituencies.

Pollsters optimistically estimate that Ukip will take six seats at most, but at worst that figure could be just one of two.

However, the party is expected to come second, and often a close second, in as many as 60 seats.

The aftershocks of that result could be felt for decades to come.

Just over half of these are forecast to be in Tory seats in the south of England, while the remainder will be in often safe Labour seats in the North.

It is here where Mr Farage's party sees its long term future of expansion, taking votes from Labour instead of splitting the right-wing vote.

The party believes that voters in Labour constituencies will be open to its messages, especially on immigration.

Senior Ukip politicians believe that strategy will be very successful.

But that will do them little good in May.

So what does a party with just a handful of MPs do?

One option is to try to maximise its influence by jointing forces with another smaller party.

And it is one of the ironies, that for all Ukip's poll ratings it is almost certain to have a smaller number of seats than the DUP, a party that only stands only in Northern Ireland.

If both parties do extremely well on the night together they could have 15 seats.

And that could mean a Tory party that needs more than just a handful of seats to form a government could find them an attractive package.

But the other political truth is that large parties will do deals with as small a grouping as they possibly can - because they can can concede fewer concessions.

This political wooing could end very abruptly indeed.