Jonah, he lived in the whale, according to the unreliable character Sportin' Life in Porgy and Bess: "For he made his home in that fish's abdomen". If Sportin' Life had paid as much attention during Scripture Knowledge lessons as Bertie Wooster (who seldom let an opportunity pass without recalling that, as a boy, he won a prize in the subject), he would have known that the biblical figure, far from making house, spent only three days in the belly of the great fish (as the Authorised Version calls it). His delivery from this peril must belie Jonah's unlucky reputation. Whether they swallow it whole or not, children have a right to know the story, so it is quite wrong of the authorities who control the space outside City Hall in London to deny permission, as we report today, for an inflatable whale to be set up there for a day as a visual aid to story-telling. Bible stories are not a crime – yet.
