In response to your letters (Why are QSs in such short supply? QS News, 7 October), I have written a few verses on the theme of missing QSs, called 'Where have all the QSs gone?' (with apologies to Pete Seeger, songwriter and Marlene Dietrich, performer, 1961)


Where have all the QSs gone?

Some time passing

Where have all the QSs gone?

Not so long ago

Lost in a torrent of hyperbole

And chaotic eganism

When will they come again?

When will they come again?

Where have all the QSs gone?

Some time passing

Where have all the QSs gone?

Not so long ago

Muzzled by a fickle trust

For ever higher funding

When will they come again?

When will they come again?

Where have all the QSs gone?

Some time passing

Where have all the QSs gone?

Not so long ago

Abandoned by a central dictum

without a warning sound

When will they come again?

When will they come again?

Where have all the QSs gone?

Some time passing

Where have all the QSs gone?

Obliged to meet all bottom lines

and every possible risk

When will they come again?

When will they come again?

Where have all the QSs gone?

Some time passing

Where have all the QSs gone?

Not so long ago

Gone to Mamon everyone

With not a thought for function

When will they come again?

When will they come again?

James Nisbet, Surrey