If RTÉ stops making kids shows, will they care?

I’M as much a sucker for a child’s letter as the next. But it’s hard to ignore how the thoughts of tiny tots have suddenly become such a feature of public events.

From the Syrian refugees to the HSE crisis, no controversy can play out these days without a letter from a precocious youngster offering a bed to a refugee or complaining about their sibling losing out on the medical card. Barely had cash strapped Iarnród Éireann announced its plan to cut routes and a sixyear-old had dashed off a letter asking that the Sligo to Dublin route be kept open so his sick mother could get to hospital.

When families are in desperate circumstances, or the world is in turmoil children take to pen and paper to highlight their worries.

Donald Trump’s election saw an avalanche of childish correspondence in the US.

One concerned mother opened a Facebook group ‘Dear President Trump: Letters From Kids About Kindness’ where thousands of youngsters sent letters, begging the president-elect to open his heart to minorities.

But for all that, the one controversy that didn’t attract any correspondence from children was a matter one might suppose would be closest to their heart, namely the ending of children’s programme making at RTÉ.

Not a letter or a note seen on that hot topic.

What that says about RTÉ’s standing with Irish children – and indeed their parents – is anyone’s guess.

New guidelines from the Food Safety Authority could spell the end of the fad for labelling food as ‘artisan’ or ‘natural’. Perhaps the FSA could turn its attention to the entire dictionary of misleading terminology used to justify exorbitant prices. Ethically made, vintage, handmade, hand-thrown, gently used, organic, non-GM, locally sourced, bespoke… the list is endless.