Perhaps forgetting that he doesn't have the luxury of not being expected to set an example (and what a luxury it is), Tipperary county councillor Michael Fitzgerald told Tipp FM that he thought it was alright to drive after a few pints. Condemnation was broadcast far and wide, and not just from politicians and concerned parents and road safety spin doctors, but from a complicit, complacent media.

The accompanying mental pictures included Enda Kenny withdrawing the party whip, no doubt with lips pursed, standing with his hands chastely folded as usual in front of his solar plexus.

This was how those of us unfortunate enough to get a convent education were taught to stand. It makes you look as if you disapprove of sex and swearing and every vice bar sweet tea and marble cake. If only Enda wasn't so pious, we'd like him a lot more.

Fitzgerald wasn't expelled from Fine Gael for drunk driving, mind you, but for being so politically unwise . . . or brave . . . as to say something everyone knows is true.

Those who disagree have either been bereaved by a drunk driver, and so are entitled to let their feelings run as high as they damn well like, or are so unremittingly middle-class that they will always go along with the latest hegemony.

Ray D'arcy was one of these: he indulged himself in some smarmy tittering at Fitzgerald, and at another councillor who supported him. There was an inescapable suspicion that D'arcy was laughing at the Tipperary accent as much as anything else. He sounded as if he's turning into another Gerry Ryan, which is the last thing we need: more bourgeois, conformist thinking shrouded in a colossal superiority complex.

Over on Newstalk, Brenda Power was taking a less partisan approach to the argument, and attempting to find fault with both sides. That's what you get with twice the brains and half the arrogance. (Incidentally, why do Today FM and Newstalk not offer podcasts of either of these programmes? Keep up now. ) Joe Duffy also tried to be evenhanded on Liveline, when he wasn't praising Gay Byrne for pushing through random breath-testing.

(Duffy can usually keep his head as long as no one mentions Gay Byrne. ) Somewhat unnecessarily, he backed Fine Gael's Fergus O'Dowd into a corner until O'Dowd agreed that FG policy was that driving with any alcohol at all should be banned.

This would even rule out liqueur chocolates, the mother superiors' favourite. Can you imagine the Fine Gael Christmas partly without the Brandy Caramel Cup?

Unthinkable.

There's not enough space this week to give due credit to the latest edition of Worlds Apart, which was about deforestation in Brazil to make way for soya production. Even if the very words 'rainforest' and 'soya' are enough to send you out driving at high revs in search of a cheeseburger, this was a good story. And Worlds Apart (funded by Irish Aid) is a perfect example of what you can do on radio with enough imagination, enough principle, and enough money.