[Chris O'Carroll]

A win for me in the "dealing with difficult people" competition. How would I know anything about that subject? This next comp seems to require quite a bit of familiarity with the Staggers, and with at least one other British periodical. (Well, the rubric doesn't say explicitly that the "any other publication" has to be British, but that's probably what's expected.)

No 4219

Set by J Seery

In the NS of 13 February, subscriber of the week Candy Morris said she would like to see “a guest-editor swap with Private Eye”. Could we have a regular item in the NS written by the editor of any other publication (eg, First Thoughts by Peter Wilby written by the editor of Horse and Hound or Down and Out in London by Nicholas Lezard reworked by the editor of Cage and Aviary Birds).
Max 150 words by 15 March comp@newstatesman.co.uk

[John Whitworth]

Seems a bit inward-looking, which is a problem with these lefty mags, always staring hard up their own bottoms.

[basil ransome-davies]

'Up itself', like some writers I know whose vanity is preposterous? An odd thing to say about a mag that is inviting compers to take the piss out of one of its regular features. And whose bottoms does the Spectator stare up?

[Brian Allgar]

Basil, I'm sure the people at the Spectator are far too well-bred to have bottoms.

[Allen Tice]

Now, Brits, play nice. Read some Tolkien.