When did 'so called' become a thing? You can't watch any news, current affairs or documentary based programme now without the presenter referring to something as 'so called'. Why don't they just call whatever they are referring to what it is?! Do they not believe it's really called that?!

It's deliberate and is intended to express doubt - for example, "so called Islamic State," suggests that they call themselves that, but we don't agree they're an actual State.

There must be doubt about a lot of things these days; smart motorways, pensioners, bedroom tax, safe spaces...

The only one of that list there isn't any doubt about, is pensioners - they definitely exist, although when they qualify as a pensioner is, these days, a moveable feast...

I would describe 'smart motorways' as so called because I've yet to see any evidence that they are; all I've seen so far on the particular stretch of hell on earth I'm subjected to every morning is several miles of so called road-works, with no one actually working. Bedroom tax I guess is described as 'so called' because however pernicious and malevolent the policy is, it's not actually a bedroom tax. Safe spaces is a new one on me - is that an American thing? If so, I refuse to discuss it!

It's a positive 'space' where members of the LGBT community can feel safe. It's featuring heavily with the current transgender fad. All of a sudden there are hundreds of confused girls in schools wanting to be known as boys and vice-versa. I'd hazard a guess that it's another Americanism we neither want nor require, like craft beer.