22 REASONS TO SMILE THIS SATURDAY... PASS IT ON!

Those 'goalpost shifting badgers' are only the start of it, according to Carol Ann Duffy in her wonderful poem '22 Reasons for the Bedroom Tax'. All nature is in uproar, what with rule-bending ferrets, the fact-twisting skunks and the gun-jumping foxes. It all adds up, to an explanation which makes as much sense as anything else in education or politics!!

Because the Badgers are moving the goalposts.

The Ferrets are bending the rules.

The Weasels are taking the hindmost.

The Otters are downing tools.

The Hedgehogs are changing the game-plan

The Grass-snakes are spitting tacks.

The Squirrels are playing the blame-game.

The Skunks are twisting the facts.

The Pole-cats are upping the ante.

The Foxes are jumping the gun.

The Voles are crashing the party.

The Stoats are dismantling the Sun.

The Rabbits are taking the biscuit.

The Hares are losing the plot.

The Eagles are kicking the bucket.

The Rats are joining the dots.

The Herons are throwing a curveball.

The Shrews are fanning the flames.

The Field mice are sinking the 8-ball.

The Swans are passing the blame.

And the Pheasants are draining the oil from the tank-

but only the Bustards have broken the bank.

Carol Ann Duffy