Today, the choice of Burns poem falls to Cathy Jamieson, the former Labour Justice Minister. "I live in Mauchline and I was brought up in Ayrshire, so I've always been very fond of Burns." She says: "I don't think anyone has bettered Burns on the radical social count." As a child, she loved Tam o' Shanter. However, she adds: "I thought today that was slightly long for this kind of endeavour." Her comic choice offers both social comment and a "weel-kent phrase."

To a Louse, On seeing one in a Lady's Bonnet at Church

Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlan ferlie!
Your impudence protects you sairly:
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gawze and lace;
Tho' faith, I fear ye dine but sparely,
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creppan, blastet wonner,
Detested, shunn'd, by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her,
Sae fine a Lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner,
On some poor body.

Swith, in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whare horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle,
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fattrels, snug and tight,
Na faith ye yet! ye'll no be right
Till ye've got on it,
The vera tapmost towrin height
O' Miss's bonnet.