now that you have alerted me to this sad state of affairs, I will look out for hedgehogs and offer them kindly words of advice, a small financial endowment and suggest a suitable course of re-training to fit their circumstances. I will send them on their way with a light heart and a twinkling smile.

We should all be kind to hedgehogs as they do seem to get the rough end of things. Why eat hedgehogs - chicken is cheap enough, and surely by the time you have heated up a hedgehog and drained off the oil - your ear ache should have passed.

Once again sir jOhn you have tugged at the heart strings of the nation.

mind you if we get a thred that starts I am a hedgehog and I've just voted for the BNP, I will start running over the little bastards again.