Look, look, look

I am rapidly going off the word LOOK; I am not going off Look in the context of bike pedals, I love my Look bike pedals, they are great. No, I do dislike, with a passion, the use of the word look at the start of a sentence.

You cannot watch any news report in New Zealand without the person being interviewed saying “Look, it is like this, blah, blah, blah” OK, so grammatically they are not incorrect – they are clearly using it as per no. 7 in this definition.

Look – verb (used without object)

1. to turn one's eyes toward something or in some direction in order to see: He looked toward the western horizon and saw the returning planes.
2. to glance or gaze in a manner specified: to look questioningly at a person. 
3. to use one's sight or vision in seeking, searching, examining, watching, etc.: to look through the papers. 
4. to tend, as in bearing or significance: Conditions look toward war. 
5. to appear or seem to the eye as specified: to look pale. 
6. to appear or seem to the mind: The case looks promising. 
7. to direct attention or consideration: to look at the facts. 
8. to have an outlook or afford a view: The window looks upon the street. 
9. to face or front: The house looks to the east.

However, the way they use it is quite condescending, high and mighty, patronising and, generally in the case of National politicians, self-righteous. To support my case I offer the following examples (sorry, only word famous in New Zealand).

Garth McVicar  – Self appointed mouthpiece of that intrepid group the Sensible Sentencing Trust http://www.safe-nz.org.nz/index.htm, a group that wants to lock people up and throw away the key. This bloke starts everything with ‘Look’; must indicate the fact he thinks his opinion is the only one that matters.

John Key  – former merchant banker, multimillionaire, currently enjoy a career of destroying New Zealand as the PM. This bloke also struggles to start a sentence without the work ‘look’.

Greg O’Connor link  – the ‘one-eyed’ president of the Police Association; right up with the other two muppets in preaching the gospel according to Greg, and that’s right, every sentence generally starts with ‘look’.

I could give more examples (and I may search for some examples that are video evidence).