GREAT BRITAIN: Pound of Mersey

Jokes touching any member of the Royal Family were abruptly and permanently barred by the British Broadcasting Corporation last week as postmen arrived with truckloads of protests against a quip broadcast from Leamington by Comedian Ernie Moss. Referring to the world’s largest underwater tunnel, lately opened by His Majesty (TIME, July 30), shrill Mr. Moss chirped: “I was to have opened the Mersey Tunnel but the King charged a pound less, so I didn’t get the job.”