NOW IS THE WORD

Sir, - In recent years, the simple three lettered word now seems to have lost favour with a wide variety of commentators and spokespersons. Instead, phrases such as "at the minute", "at this point in time" and "at this particular point in time" have become their stock in trade.

I would suggest that those who use such longwinded phrases should reflect on how W. B. Yeats would have rated as a poet if he had written "I will arise and go at this particular point in time".

or how ridiculous Richard III would have sounded if Shakespeare had made him declaim: "At this point in time is the winter of our discontent imagine Vera Lynn singing "At the minute is the hour . . ." The mind boggles. - Yours, etc.

Silchester Park,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.