I am a bit late in my reading but I found this classic article, written in June, from John Rentoul of The Independent. He has decided to rage a war against the over-use of cliches. As John is a Political writer, the clichés are really those used in political speeches and commentary.

I use clichés in copy – not much but they do serve a purpose and I do caution about their over-use in the 31 days. But as a person who writes on a daily basis, this article just tickled me.

He then set up a separate blog post for the banned list of clichés, with the twitter hashtag of #bannedlist. (Although John does say that hashtag is coming close to a cliché!)

The top ten are:

1. It’s the economy, stupid.

2. A week is a long time in politics. Or variants thereof, such as, “If a week is a long time in politics then a month seems an eternity.”

3. What part of x don’t you understand? Although this one seems to have nearly died out already.

4. Way beyond, or way more.

5. Any time soon.

6. “Events, dear boy, events.” (Except as the name of an excellent political blog, currently in abeyance.)

7. Learning curve.

8. Raising awareness.

9. Celebrating diversity.

10. In any way, shape or form.

Can we think of any more to add to his list?