IN his book Essential English, the former editor of this newspaper, Harold Evans, laments the growth of the clich.

"Perhaps we can define a clich as any phrase so hackneyed as to be knock-kneed," says the great man, whose youthful photograph looks down on the editor's chair to this day.

It is impossible to ban clichs, Evans concedes, because there are so many about. But he adds: "What text editors can do is to ration them and tolerate only the best." His list of the worst includes: armed to the teeth, blazing inferno, brutal reminder, winds of change and storm of protest.

I would, of course, be a fool to suggest that The Northern Echo is clich-free, but attempts at rationing are made and Evans' list is on its way to the Echo's journalists as I write. (For a second, I was tempted to suggest that the list was 'winging its way' but I thought better of it.)

My most detested clich doesn't feature in Harry Evans' list. It is the proliferation of the word "war" in football reports. Wenger and Fergie are always at war, although the only missiles that fly are pizzas.

And players frequently talk of war, a typical example being Joe Cole last week: "We had to battle for the win and it felt like a war at times against Liverpool," he said.

He's not stepping over bodies with their heads and limbs blown off. He's earning £100,000 a week for kicking a ball around. If he's really unlucky, he might get tackled from behind.

Perhaps I'm being unfair on footballers. The match in question was, after all, the one in which Chelsea's Arjen Robben went down, clutching his neck as if he'd been hit by a sniper's bullet, after being lightly pushed by Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina.

Football needs to root out theatricality. It also needs to avoid the phraseology of war out of respect for those who really know what it's like to live in fear of the sniper's bullet.

THIS new column aims to provide an insight into The Northern Echo's philosophy.

It will respond to readers' questions and explain what the paper stands for, why decisions are taken, and how mistakes are made.

The biggest current issue with readers is clearly the new, compact format of The Northern Echo on Saturdays.

After five weeks, the response suggests that around 80 per cent are in favour of the smaller format, with 20 per cent supporting the broadsheet.

It remains too early to make decisions about the rest of the week but please continue to let me know your views.

Believe it or not, I've even had a letter from two cats. Sooty and Sue, from West Auckland, wrote to say they preferred the broadsheet. They politely explained that their "Mum and Dad" always rolled up the paper for them to play with. It wasn't as much fun with the Saturday compact.

I wrote back to Sooty and Sue, saying I hoped that they'd get used to the weekend size. I think I might even have said that nothing's purrfect. But please don't tell Harold Evans.