Never, ever

Woman's Hour was on my mind as, by some strange stroke of fate, I was just listening to an interview between Jane Garvey and Gordon Brown's former pollster Deborah Mattinson (as you do).

Something Jane Garvey said struck me as worth noting down for posterity - though I'm not quite sure why. Nevertheless, here goes...

Jane started by doing that thing you used to hear quite a lot from the BBC when they started talking about the EU (as well as that thing the BBC are still doing - namely calling the EU 'Europe'):

So to Europe then. Now, I am begging you not to nod off or turn off right now, but it is nevertheless..it used to be a plain fact..that for many people the issue of Europe sort of comes in that category of 'probably quite important but boring' but for others - sizeable minorities on both sides of this argument - it is vital, it is the stuff of their lives.

Jane placed herself very emphatically in the former camp: 

Right. What intrigues me about this issue is it's been around as long as I've been a journalist - Europe. We know about the 1990s and Maastricht and everything else. It is one of those topics that I have never, ever discussed outside my professional life.

Have you never, ever discussed the EU at home or with friends?

Never?

Ever?

Now I know I'm a man and, apparently, we're more nerdy than women (guilty as charged), but I have discussed the EU with some women on a few occasions over the years - and it wasn't just me talking or always me who started it.

How on earth has Jane Garvey managed never, ever to have a discussion with anyone outside of the BBC about it?