[Chris O'Carroll]

This is rather like a recently announced Spectator comp (except that this one doesn't ask for verse entries). I'm sure the two magazines have duplicated one another like this on more than one occasion in the past, and that somebody with a longer memory than mine can recall specific examples.

No 4260
Set by Leonora Casement
We would like you to think up new fables, complete with a moral, in any modern setting – during the recession, the phone-hacking scandal, and so on.
Max 150 words by 17 January comp@newstatesman.co.uk

[Brian Allgar]

Monsieur Brun the bear was unhappy. True, he had a position of power and privilege as Chancellor of the Forest, and he did his job very well. But he wanted more. He wanted the top job. Why should Monsieur Blaireau the badger have it? Bears were bigger, stronger, and above all more intelligent than badgers. The job was rightfully his, and he lost no opportunity to remind the badger that it was his turn.

Finally, Monsieur Blaireau yielded to his constant hectoring, and stepped down. Monsieur Brun was jubilant - but not for long. At a general meeting, the animals of the forest voted him out of office. Rebuffed and humiliated, he returned to his cave, where he devoted his time to scratching on the walls the names of all his enemies, while reflecting bitterly that even if you get what you want, you may not want what you get.