mostly david ephgrave

Today, I thought I'd share an article I spotted in the paper years ago, and cut out and kept. I’ve copied it verbatim, for your entertainment . It’s worth noting the pointless inclusion of everyone's age (except the badger and the 'expert') and the unnecessary mention of the father's occupation. Oh, and here's a little spoiler: it doesn't end well. BADGER’S 3HR ‘WAR’ ON FAMILY A family were trapped in their home for nearly three hours - besieged by a crazed BADGER. The animal chased Luke McCoy, 12, and four pals to his house after spotting them getting off the school bus. Then it waited outside the front door and refused to budge. Luke’s mum Rosalind and dad Michael - both 43 - were also inside. Michael said yesterday: “I realised we had a problem when it tried to force its way through the locked catflap. “It was scraping at the flap with its claws and trying to push it open with its snout”. Racehorse breedi...

Pray silence, for possibly the finest headline of all time. How's that for a story? It has everything : a man behind the wheel of a high-speed vehicle, a glamorous female lead   - and a van full of dead badgers. How could it fail? Brook’s boyfriend was even an ex-Gladiator (not in the Colosseum; on ITV). It just gets better by the second. To be honest, the actual article was a bit of an anti-climax. It couldn’t live up to dizzying intrigue of its headline. The journalist should have just typed those fourteen words and be done with it. It's nice to see The Independent running stories of national importance.