("We were smarter and we knew we didn't want to end up begging on other people's doorsteps," Natalie insists).. Questions about identity, paths not taken and the wages of time are also sprinkled over the narrative.
And they are not above raising this on the doorstep, though Curran insists: "Her personal life is her own business".
Because, if 'brains' equals fiscal rectitude, insisting on more austerity, more cuts, may not be an easy sell on the doorstep when we go though this again in another five years.
And as votive candles flickered over flowers banked in a makeshift shrine on the doorstep, an anguished mother, Juanita Young, insisted that her son's death was more than a terrible accident, and could not be justified by his criminal record.
Before embarking on a day's doorstep canvassing on Tuesday, Mr Keys insisted that war in Iraq was "an illegal catastrophe - 35 British soldiers killed, 900 maimed and 100,000 Iraqi deaths - which cannot be swept under the carpet".
I insisted on being open on the doorsteps and at public meetings when the issue was raised.
You are saying: 'Your stupid small-minded caveman politics are irrelevant.'" A non-practicing Muslim, she insists her ethnicity is not an issue on the doorstep.
UKIP's MEP for Wales Nathan Gill always insisted that immigration was a huge issue on the doorstep in Wales, like it is in other parts of the UK.
Miss Kirkbride had insisted that she would be meeting people in her constituency on the doorstep over the next few days and would be instead spending Sunday with her son.
That sentiment was echoed by the imam of a mosque just around the corner from Salah's safe house, who insisted that he had no idea that the fugitive was on his doorstep.
