Competition | 5 June 2010

In Competition 2649 you were invited to submit a news bulletin on the outcome of the general election delivered by a well-known figure from history. Well done, everyone: it was a strong entry and a pleasure to judge. Narrowly missing a place in the winning line-up were Bill Greenwell, J. Seery, Shirley Curran, P.C. Parrish and John Whitworth. Those who made the final cut earn £25 each and Brian Murdoch nets the extra fiver.

News reaches me in the Elysian Fields of the outcome of the senatorial competition in our remote province of Britannia. Every haruspex had correctly foreseen a triumvirate outcome with ensuing confusion, nor was this surprising, given the portents in the prior days and weeks. Did not Neptune himself belch black pitch to sully the oceans, and did not Vulcan spew forth ashes in far-off Thule, so that the skies would be emptied? The triumvirs engaged in mutual plotting, until one of them, formerly tribune of the plebs, was assassinated by the other two, younger senators, both of the patrician class.