NEVER knock another man's racket, the late Brian Lenihan used to say. It seems everybody has a racket these days: that psychic in Knock, those Four Angry Men at the Concert Hall, Jack O'Connor on Frontline, Brendan Gleeson in Into the Storm, or David McWilliams just about everywhere.

These are the men of the moment. People are turning out to see them, to hear them, to touch the hem of their garments. What does this tell us? In short, that the country has officially gone mad; more charitably, that we are crying out for leadership.

These days there is only one man who can provide leadership: Brian Cowen, me old mucker. He may be leading, but is he showing leadership? There is a difference.

Emoting as only she can, Miriam O'Callaghan -- wearing a fetching new lip gloss -- asked the Taoiseach on Prime Time last week if he was showing leadership. He said he was. But maybe that's just his racket -- politics.

We will only know on December 9, Budget Day, if he has the stuff of leaders, when he must do what he should have done a year ago, two years ago ...

Here is the truth about the burning issue of the week: of course Miriam flirts -- but in a charming way. That is her racket. If it were any other way, we would all be terribly unhappy.

How will we know if Brian Cowen told Miriam the truth, though? We will know only if public sector workers have their inflated salaries cut by 10 per cent. There is no other way.

Jack O'Connor should admit to that. But he won't. He can't. Not while he is fixated on his own racket: getting Labour/Sinn Fein/hard left into government. In what passes for glee, dour Jack recently told Marian Finucane that Dublin is now 57 per cent left/hard left. He is right.

Here is my racket: I try to tell you what is really going on. So do Fintan O'Toole, Pat Leahy and Matt Cooper, three of the Four Angry Men, from their perspective, which is not mine.

Last week Fintan tried to tell you in a humorous way; he contrived something tortuous about John and Edward. I gave up after three paragraphs. Fintan should stick to smugness. He does it much better.

Here is the truth about another burning issue of the week: more people prefer to watch John and Edward than, say, The Week in Politics. Why? In short, because Jedward leaves them happy.

Just because this is my racket doesn't mean I always get it right. Public sector workers would agree. I did not call them failed human beings last week, as a firefighter claimed on Pat Kenny's radio show on Friday.

Or maybe I did, but only in this respect: they fail to understand that they are unhappy, as I explained, because they are on an aspirational treadmill; they desperately need to get off.

Last week the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development confirmed as much. The standard of living here will be permanently lower. That was my point. When public sector workers accept that, they may begin to get happy.

Here is the good news: the standard of living may be permanently lower than in 2006, but will be higher than in, say, 2000. That is not bad. I will take it anyway.

But that is just my opinion, informed as it may be, or not, as you may think. My opinion is as good as the next guy's, as good as that firefighter's, for example. If my house catches fire, I will still call him. I have earned the right to do so. I pay my taxes.

Meanwhile, we are all treading water until December 9...

I do not write books, not yet anyway, although I was asked last week to write one. I am now thinking of getting in on that particular racket. Nor do I read them, the books of the Four Angry Men. Life is too short.

If I want to know what Shane Ross thinks, I just ask him. Shane is the fourth of the Angry Men. His performance was the best at the Concert Hall the other night. Of course, I would have to say that. But it happens to be true. I left at the break.Shane sits just four feet from me in the office when he is not in the Senate. He writes an informed column. Last week, he launched his book. The Bankers. It went straight in at number two, behind that book by Donal Og.

Shane and I usually have a chat on Friday evening. I ask him his view on the issue of the day. He normally just chuckles and shrugs, but always gives an opinion: bankers are bad, Fas is bad, CIE is bad, most semi-States are bad, bearded trade unionists are terrible, and everything else is good, or at least OK.

The difference between Shane and Fintan O'Toole and Jack O'Connor is that Shane has a wicked sense of humour. He also knows a thing or two. His opinion, therefore, is as good as the next guy's. The next guy is the guy who empties the office bin that Shane and I share. His name is John.

Speaking of binmen, did you see Jack O'Connor on Frontline on Monday night? I did, just about. I had been watching Brendan Gleeson's portrayal of Churchill in Into the Storm. Gleeson was great; Churchill was brilliant. If we are looking for leadership in these war-like times, we could not do better than stand behind a character like Churchill.

Sometimes Brian Cowen can show those bulldog characteristics. I met a man obsessed with the job in hand in Tullamore last August. December 9 will tell us all we need to know...

The whole country is talking about Jack O'Connor on the telly. If you haven't seen it, look it up online. Jack is now, officially, a busted flush, economically if not politically; politically, he and Frank Connolly are still in the game.

Praise where it is due: Pat Kenny did the country a service on Monday night; he exposed Jack's economic philosophy for what it is: empty. In that one exchange, Pat earned his vast salary, or a proportion of it: about one-fifth, which would be, give or take, the size of the busted flush's salary -- €125,000 a year, as you ask.

The country has officially gone mad. They turned on David McWilliams for telling the truth. Like Shane, David is a friend of mine. Or, rather, we are friendly.

I talked to him on Saturday afternoon as his son was dressing up for Halloween. His son went trick or treating as Rafael Benitez, which we thought was funny.Next year, mine might go as David McWilliams.Or Jack O'Connor.

Like Pat Kenny, David, in his new book, has done the country a service. He is an economist, or a "celebrity" economist, as they say. He is also a journalist. The problem is, people are confusing the two jobs. As an economist, David is as good as the next guy. Never knock another man's racket. As a journalist, he is better than most.

In his book, or in the extract I read, he gave us an orgasmic insight into a world we seldom see. Brian Lenihan was all over the place shortly before the Government introduced the bank guarantee scheme last year. Lenihan hates that we now know that.

But it is important that we know, in case it all goes horribly wrong. In time, when the historians go to work, they will lean first on David's book, not Fintan's, nor Matt's, nor Pat's -- perhaps not even on Shane's.

We seldom get such insight. Politicians don't like you to see reality. It is why they employ vast numbers of advisers and press officers and the like, to fudge the truth. That was why politicians were so upset with David McWilliams. He stripped away the spin; perversely, the media is also upset because the media tends to connive with the PR bullshit.

Journalists find it difficult to accept that McWilliams is a real journalist; economists find it difficult to accept that he is a real economist. In fact, combined, he is brilliant at both: he should stop apologising for that.

Right now, I am off to catch up with the public sector protesters on the streets...

And right now, I am back. There were about 15,000, maybe 20,000 workers protesting in Dublin, most of them under the banners of the public service, a few Shinners and community activists with Scottish or English accents, for some reason.

They were, generally, good-humoured, even though it was a very cold day. I had a couple of cigarettes and watched them pass by. One man was haranguing David Begg, calling him a "fat cat". Poor old David looked uncomfortable. On average, those marching earn 25 per cent more than their private-sector equivalents.

I have just contacted the Department of Finance. Protest or no protest, it has been confirmed that, officially, the country is still a mess. Pay cheques for the protesters will bounce this February, maybe March, unless Brian Cowen does what he has to do on December 9. We shall see.

Sunday Independent