Listening to the radio this morning, I thought the BBC was on a roll of bad-taste April fool-ness.

First, it claimed that the MDC had won 25 of the 29 seats so far declared in Zimbabwe. Then it claimed that the Pope was pretty much dead.

But apparently, both of these are true: the cities where the MDC is strong always declare their results first, and it’s unlikely to win many more seats than it’s already got; and the Pope really is finally on his way out.

I hope the MDC does better than expected, and am slightly relieved that Mad Bob didn’t rig the elections even more than he has. Meanwhile, I wish the Pope a speedy and painless death – preferably one without a self-appointed clown-show attempting to drag it out for 15 years of lunacy and politicking (my hopes for Tom DeLay are subtly different).