BACK in the day when I worked on various national tabloids, it was vital to keep up with the news 24/7.

If I only had time to read one paper before starting work (I did have children to think about, too!), it was always the Daily Telegraph, because despite the Conservative bias of its opinion columns, it was the ‘paper of record’ where you could guarantee that all the day’s news stories would be covered in a factual, relatively impartial way.

No longer the case, sadly. It’s now moved far to the right, and so some years ago we switched allegiance to The Guardian, which I like to read on my iPad before I get up in the morning, giving me a daily excuse for a lie-in.

It’s a bit self-righteously lefty for some of my readers, I’m guessing.

But I hadn’t realised quite how much it qualified us as members of the chattering classes till my husband, a keen cook, started reading aloud extracts from the recipe section as we lounged about one morning.

“Brussels sprout gratin with fennel salami,” he announced with horrified glee. “Now that could only come from The Guardian!”

Even better was the headline last Thursday: “How to eat flowers without poisoning yourself.”

Well, we had to laugh. Was this what we’d become?

“Obviously not,” I hope my loyal readers will reply. But we’ll have to be careful.

As will motorists, while Salisbury awaits the more mainstream delights of the drive-thru McDonald’s, under construction next to Big Tesco.

In fact they’ll be well advised to avoid Southampton Road altogether for several weeks this spring.

They won’t relish (pun intended) the McMonstrous traffic jams that are expected as Milford Mill Road is closed to facilitate the installation of traffic lights at the railway bridge where so many juggernaut drivers have come to grief in recent years.

As one reader wrote to me: “Remembering a few weeks ago when a four-hour closure of this well-used rat run caused gridlock on Churchill Way and Southampton Road, steer clear of the area from April 3.”

I’m lovin’ it already.

anneriddle36@gmail.com