Heroic BBC Expose Hideous Massacre

OK, so five nights of rioting in Peterborough didn't make it onto the Today programme, which concentrates on more serious issues like 'should nipples be shown in an EU broadcast ?' or the damage caused by urban seagulls.

But this morning the Radio 4 Today programme exposed a massacre of innocents which will outrage Britain, one which makes Abu Ghraib, Oradour and My Lai pale into insignificance.

Wyevale Garden Centres are a large capitalist organisation with 124 branches in England and Wales. According to the Today account, at their Thornbury branch some robins had nested in a greenhouse by the cafeteria, and were soon flying in and out with food for their young. What a pleasant sight for the shoppers, you might think. But the management saw it as potentially a health and safety issue in litigious Britain. They might defecate on someone's lunch. A pensioner might be startled by a low-flying robin.

So pest controllers were called in. The nest with the young robins inside was taken way and the young killed. The garden centre and pest controllers have refused to confirm or deny that the parents were shot.

Ironically the nest was close to a display of nesting boxes and wild bird food.

Words fail me.