So: on The Today Programme this morning, a Yorkshire Vicar who risks having to close his church over the summer due to the presence of Natterers Bats; an endangered species, the larger Natterers (unlike their Pipistrelle cousins) fly in/out in the gap over the church door, and poop liberally around the church leaving a nasty smell and a health hazard.

To paraphrase the Vicar:

We’re not allowed to do anything to disturb or hamper them because they are an endangered species […] We’ve prayed that they should go somewhere else, and some of the local humourists have suggested that we should baptise and confirm the bats, because we’d then be sure never to see them again.

I think it’s the first time I’ve heard a Today presenter belly-laugh on air.