As someone who abhors a vacuum in conversation and is prepared to rabbit on about any subject about anything either in general or particular I have been very popular with the local radio station since I retired.

I now do. as well as my food slot on a Tuesday, a book review on a Saturday and frequently talk about what is in the papers in
Sunday Review.

If ever anything even vaguely foodie comes up they get me on the line and so I was an obvious candidate for asking questions on a pre-election radio question and answer session to the candidates in Waterford.

I intended to ask a foodie question and when Ger the producer asked would Sile ask one on education I said I’m sure she would.
She, it turned out, wouldn’t.
I ended up having to ask the education question.
My food question (on genetically modified foods) was, at any rate, reckoned to be “inappropriate “ for the candidates.

Sile did however provide me with the question.

Q.
I would like to hear the candidates opinion on state sponsored preschool crèches and nurseries which would enable both parents to go to work without paying crippling fees on child care?

All the candidates seemed to say that they were thoroughly in favour, Martin Cullen gave me a ton of financial reasons why this would take some time , John Deasy seemed with me (although it was hard to tell from his answer) and feisty Mary Roche (who had a baby three weeks ago) was certainly on my side, as indeed was Brendan Mc Cann of the Greens.
It was my first occasion I had ever done anything even vaguely political (that is if you don’t count an anti Viet Nam march in the sixties) and what interested me most was the way the politicians all address all their answers to me personally.
They added emphasis to this by punctuating each phrase with my name.
In the end I was asked my opinion of the response and my reply
(which got a titter) was that it seemed that, as a man approaching grand fatherhood (please god) the Irish solution would remain firmly in the court of the grandparents.

The last time I did a “Sunday View” here on the radio I had the temerity to criticise Bertie’s dress sense.
There was an immediate response from a local pundit whose advise to me was to stick to what I knew and get back into the kitchen.

Me with all the housewives/ house husbands I presume.

This picture, which came all the way from Annecy in France where Fianna Fail have a very strong presence, has absolutely nothing to do with this entry but is so apposite to the title that I had to put it in.
Thanks Bebs.