Dark Days For Blair After the trouncing Labour took last Thursday in the local elections, Prime Minister Tony Blair was forced to have a cabinet re-shuffle sooner than expected. Some moves were expected. Ruth Kelly moving to a new department. Charles Clarke returning to the backbenches. Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong being demoted. However, a lot of the new positions came as a surprise. Margaret Beckett promoted to Foreign Secretary, even after she presided over......

Prescott Plays Away Oh yes, the most unlikely news. Prescott, the multiple-Jaguar owning, language-mangling trouser-stretching (yes, in THAT way too, evidently) Deputy PM has had an affair with a woman 20 years his junior. His lover, Tracey Temple, was at the time Prescott's assistant private secretary, and took on the role of diary secretary to Two Jags. They began an illicit relationship at an office party in 2002, and started meeting secretly in a......

Straw Defends Gaza Evacuation As Londonist writes, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is defending the decision to pull British prison monitors out of a prison in Gaza just days before Israeli forces stormed it, looking to seize a prisoner that the Palestinian authorities will not release. The question is whether this withdrawal amounts to an endorsement by the British Government of the Israeli actions. Jack Straw has said that this is not the case,......

Clarke Remains Defiant After Lords Defeat Home Secretary Charles Clarke has vowed to battle on with his proposed ID cards legislation after it was defeated in the Lords last night. Their Lordships, many of whom come from a law background, feel that making the cards compulsary, is an infringement of people's human rights, and as such, is beyond the power of Government. They duly voted 227 to 166 against the proposal last night. Whether......

Computer equipment belonging to the man investigating the death of Princess Diana has been stolen The stuff that conspiracy filled dreams are made of. The Met are on the case. A teenage girl arrested on suspicion of murdering a young man by stabbing him in the heart has been released on bail. Police appeal for witnesses. A 45-year-old man has been arrested following a raid on a "sophisticated" cannabis factory... police community support officers......

Crimewatch reconstruction of Sally Anne Bowman murder throws up some new clues. Charles Clarke rules out a public enquiry in to July 7 bombings. The FSA thinks that too many of the top financial institutions' back up sites are based in London. Ken has one of the charges dropped against him but might still be charged with 'bringing his office into disrepute'. The Queen files a story at Reuters. Like journalists didn't have a bad......

Don't forget that this week's People's Question Time event is your last chance to quiz Ken in person this year (unless that is you want to burst into his office weilding a sharp object with abusive slogans painted on your naked body, but that's only a last resort thing). People's Question Time is a twice-yearly event at which the public get the chance "to voice concerns and ask the Mayor and London Assembly Members......

Charles Clarke seems determined to out-Blunkett his predecessor as much as possible and is preparing a new wave of anti-terrorism laws that go as far as offering a five year prison sentence to anyone who "glorifies, exalts or celebrates" any terrorist act committed over the past 20 years. This of course all hinges on the debate over what exactly constitutes an act of terrorism and the old chestnut of terrorist vs. freedom fighter. To......

EMERGENCY HOTLINE: 0870 1566 344 Some useful links: Guardian News Blog. Very useful Wikipedia page. Transport for London. Breaking News: the entire tube network is down and all stations are being evacuated because of reported 'power surges' at various places on the system. Explosions have been reported at Edgware Road and Aldgate and there are reports of 'walking wounded' and commuters smashing windows of trains with 'their umbrellas' to get out. There is at least......

We never thought we'd miss David Blunkett but we're sorry to say that new Home Secretary Charles Clarke makes us look back on the fuzzy faced fascist with renewed longing. Say what you will about Blunkett but at least his guide dog liked him. Mr Clarke, after running into the same silly laws that used to wind up his predecessor, has decided to try and ram home his new "extreme measures" to stop those......