NEWS SWITCH-OFF: TRIGGER WORDS/PHRASES

Once upon a time I was a news junkie. I couldn't get enough of current affairs and I had a high interest in what was going on in the world. I felt that knowledge of global events was essential in understanding my place on planet Earth. I watched as much news on television as I could, listened to radio bulletins, devoured several newspapers a day and became absorbed in discussion programmes like BBC's Question Time. I loved it all.

But in recent years, and I can't really put my finger one one specific reason, I recoiled from news programmes and tended to skim the headlines to catch the bare minimum to keep me in touch with what was going on. I watched big news stories as they happened up until the point where repetition and commentator blether wore me down. I was suffering from news fatigue.

So, this week on the blog, I will be mentioning trigger words and phrases that force me to switch off the news and avoid buying newspapers. But, no fool me, I will not fall into the trap of assuming that we live in a world of free speech. There will be a lot of asterisks because a word or phrase can attract all kinds of antisocial media shit and it will be up to anyone who gives a damn to guess what those words and phrases are - without any help from me.

TODAY'S TRIGGER WORDS & PHRASES:

1) NHS

2) ****

3) Iain Duncan Smith

4) ********

5) Peter Andre

6) *** *********

7) Katie Hopkins

8) *******

9) Jamie Oliver

10) Any former army general or long-retired politician