Nul points for the UK bishops

Eurovision song contest news.

Well, it was "nul points" for the bishops of England, Scotland, and Wales this week, as their pastoral letter "Down with carbon", sung by Mad John Arnold and the Stooges, failed to convince anyone in this Pentecost-themed Eurovision Song Contest. Its strident chorus, "Build back better! Build back better!" wasn't the hit they had expected, and nobody could find anything much about Pentecost in the lyrics apart from a bit about how the Holy Spirit was backing mighty rushing wind power rather than tongues of fire.

Bad news for the bishops!

Why, even the Germans, with their fetching rainbow vestments and their song "We'll bless anything", sung by the heavyweight team of Cardinal Marx and the Schismatics, managed to get three points. Still no mention of Pentecost, however.

No entry from the Vatican, whose "Pachamama Blues" would have been a certainty for the 2020 competition; apparently the money reserved for preparing an entry is now resting in someone's bank account. However, they may take some credit for Italy's winning entry of "Tutti Fratelli ice-cream", sung by Massimo and the Beans.

"They're starting to throw rotten tomatoes, lads. Sing louder!"

Tonight their disgruntled manager Vincent Nichols complained, "We did our best to write a modernist song, throwing away all that old-fashioned stuff about the Holy Spirit leading us to truth, let alone St Paul's irrational prejudices against fornication, gross indecency, sexual irresponsibility, idolatory and sorcery. We concentrated on the message of St Greta of Thunberg, the Venerable Biden, and Boris the Green (formerly 'that fascist Boris Johnson')."

Well, we already knew that the days of Vincent Nichols, were numbered, as the Vatican struggles to find a worthy successor, but this fiasco can only hasten his downfall.