Must we silence nightingales in order to build houses? | Simon Jenkins

This exquisitely precious bird – nature's composer, conductor and performer in one – is at risk from modern British planning

Wednesday 17 April was not just the day of Lady Thatcher's funeral. The diary gave it as the scheduled arrival date of this year's nightingale migration. How wonderful it would have been if, amid the bells, choirs and organs, this bird of joy had settled in St Paul's churchyard and made the world fall silent.

Two nights before, at the Royal Society of Literature, the nigh...