For example, last week's show asked whether being able to speak proper really does help you in life. Presenter Claudia Hammond said that all those 'ums' and 'you knows' and 'reallys' - and she admits she uses them copiously herself - might not be standing in our way after all.

New research by Alison Fragale, assistant professor of organisational behaviour and strategy (yes) at the university of North Carolina, has found that people who speak well do not necessarily make a better impression, and are not always more likely to be promoted at work. Fragale compared people's reaction to so-called 'powerless speech' - tentative, hesitant and full of hedges, disclaimers and qualifiers - to 'powerful speech', in which you navigate purposefully from one end of a sentence to the other.

Sure enough, she found that an articulate speaker is seen as more intelligent, competent and independent.

Yet people like powerless speakers better: they come across as more polite and agreeable. So in jobs where people work independently, it is better to appear assertive, she said, but if you work in a team, you're better off being over-friendly.

Who'd have thought it would take a research grant to establish that people respond better to nonthreatening communication? Didn't Desmond Morris do all that work already in The Naked Ape? Anyway, we in Ireland have long known this. You don't even have to pose no threat; you just have to appear to pose no threat. Our Chief Ape can barely express himself at all, and as a result, we seem to think he's harmless.

For an example of the power of unequivocal speaking, though, you need have looked no further last week than Nuala O'Loan, Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, investigator of police collusion in loyalist killings, and all-round woman of the week - to date, woman of the year, actually.

O'Loan's report into collusion, released on Monday, raised the curtain on a drama in which most of the main players won't be willing to appear on stage, and this was abundantly clear from RT�?'s coverage alone.

Tommie Gorman was talking about it on Morning Ireland, as was Raymond McCord senior, who's been pushing for this inquiry since the murder of his son by the UVF in 1997. The News at One had O'Loan herself, and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.

Drivetime had Gorman, McGuinness and solicitor Michael Finucane, whose father Pat was murdered by loyalists with the collusion of the security forces. And finally, Tonight with Vincent Browne had Raymond McCord again, and Michael Finucane again.

Anyway, on News at One, O'Loan was a paragon of plain speech. She answered all of Seán O'Rourke's painstaking questions faithfully, concealed nothing, and didn't answer any questions she hadn't been asked.

How vivid was the contrast between her and Michael McDowell, who appeared later on the programme to talk about the increase in murder (or 'homicide' as everyone seems to be calling it these days? Where are we? Miami? ) McDowell was all hesitation, deviation and repetition, but - unless you happen to be a corruptible PSNI officer - there will be no mistaking which of the two of them is more threatening.