Because the programme was initially conceived as a public information service (and because the current producers seem to think it still is) all characters occasionally get the most unbelievably dull lines. Witness Ruth just before Christmas, when she said something like:
'I must go into town to post my Christmas cards, because today is the last day for second class postage though if you get first class stamps you have four more days unless you are posting in Northern Island in a town with an 'r' in it...drone, whitter, inform...'