Thanks to the vagaries of the Grunion publication schedule, I’m writing this column before Tuesday’s election results are in, and you are reading it after everyone knows who won what, and why. So ...

   1Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.    2This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.    ...

The history of the census is a fascinating one. The Babylonians and the Chinese held censuses mainly for military and taxation purposes, and Egyptians in order to organise the huge number of people ...