Mea Culpa: time for a wake-up call about the use of cliches

Questions of style and usage in last week’s Independent

‘Look, I’ve been driving this bus all week and I assure you, no one has been thrown under it...’ (PA)

I confess I used the phrase “wake-up call” in a radio interview during the election campaign. It is harder than it looks to avoid cliches when speaking, but the whole point of written journalism is that you have the chance, the extra few seconds, to take them out.

We usually do, but one crept in to our review of the world’s top 15 heavyweight boxers, in which we said Andy Ruiz “remains a dangerous opponent who may just have had the wake-up call he needed to take the next step up”.

It is none of my business, really, but I do wonder why we report on boxing at all. I don’t think it should be on TV, and if it weren’t on TV then the argument that a lot of people watch it wouldn’t apply. In any case, there are probably a lot of people who would watch bear-baiting if it were on.