Spectator competition winners: Big Ben’s bongs

For the latest competition you were asked to compose poems about Big Ben’s bongs. The decision to remove the 13-tonne bell during the four-year restoration works on Elizabeth Tower has caused a right old ding-dong, with senior ministers, including the PM, joining the fray. There were lots of entries about health and safety gone mad, though given that being at close quarters to the Great Bell’s 120-decibel bong is the equivalent of putting your ear right next to a police siren, I am not so sure about that. Some of you, in a bid to be original, or perhaps just finding the whole kerfuffle too boring, composed entries about a man called Big Ben and the other type of bong. Commendations go to Nathan Weston and Adam Rylander (aged 15). And, with echoes of Wordsworth, Gray, Auden, Lear and Newbolt echoing in my ears, I award the bonus fiver to Bill Greenwell.