The late, great Rod Liddle in one of his classic columns fulminated against what he called the most ‘irritating words’. For instance, there is the irritating use of ‘myself’ (the self-referential pronoun) – now excessively overused as in: ‘As for me myself, what I think is…’. Similarly, the absurd use of ‘yourself’ when the person from the call centre asks if ‘you yourself are happy with the service’. Also on Liddle’s list of verbal irritations is ‘today’ – as when a waiter (sorry, ‘wait-person’) asks ‘how can I help you today?’ Did they think I might need their help a week from now? Liddle put the boot into the overuse of the word ‘vile’ – so overused, he says, it has almost lost its meaning. And the same applies to ‘toxic’ when used to describe something someone has said. Liddle wrote: ‘Stuff which is toxic includes Strontium-90, blue asbestos and nerve gas: not words.’ Quite right! And calling someone who has suffered sexual harassment a ‘survivor’ rather than a ‘victim’ does them no good at all. It implies that a shadow has been cast over the rest of their life. To round off his list Rod pointed to that odious expression ‘my truth’. As he pointed out, this is usually uttered by people who are refusing to face facts and deal with reality. Most of the woke left these days seems to be living in a fantasy, fairytale world in which reality is meant to conform to their opinions, instead of the other way around. Well done, Rod Liddle – you are greatly missed!