As one Londonista said the other day, "we can't ignore it!" - Valentine's Day is here, and love is in the air, even here in Westminster. Many people find power sexy. Others claim that politics is "showbusiness for ugly people" (why else would I be so rabidly political?) On this Valentine's Day therefore, Londonist has a treat for you! Do you fancy being part of a political sex scandal? Do you want to sell......

It seems that the Liberal Democrats can't go a week without a scandal. First, there were the original revelations about Charles Kennedy's drinking (quelle surprise?!) Then there was the admission of the party's Leader in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, that he too has battled with a drink problem. Now Mark Oaten steps into the frame, with the News of the World uncovering his visits to a male prostitute over a six-month period......

There's no way to break this gently: There's a whale in the Thames. Go take photos now. BBC24 are talking about a rescue boat being launched... Update: It's a pilot whale Northern Bottle Nosed whale normally found in deep water so while it's in no immediate danger it does need to be encouraged to pull a Charles Kennedy and wave a fond goodbye to Parliament sooner rather than later. Some bint on Beeb24 just......

You may have heard the rumours that Charles Kennedy is facing a coup d’etat within the Liberal Democrat party. Well, these rumours certainly got louder today. Lembit Öpik, the Lib Dems’ Wales and Northern Ireland spokesman, spoke to the press today denouncing those in the party who are plotting behind the scenes to unseat Kennedy as ‘cowardly.’ “What is questionable here is why go through the press and brief in what I think is......

Londonist just finished watching last night's special edition of BBC One's Question Time in which a live audience grappled with the three main party leaders - if you missed it like we did first time round then there's a web version here (link on the right). Not quite as entertaining as we wished and The Guardian summed it up pretty well: The audience toyed with Charles Kennedy, offering applause as well as catcalls as......

Now that's a Prime Minister... flying through the heavens, defying the laws of nature, deflecting lightning blasts and still home well before the start of Blue Peter. Makes Howard's powers of darkness seem a tad old fashioned... Damn, but this election is dull. Only a week or so to go, thank Odin, as we're already bored with having to destuff the Londonist letterbox of badly designed political leaflets and rather than just turn the......

The first major memorial to go up in the Mall in eight years was unveiled a little while ago. The Queen was wheeled out to do the honours and expertly pulled on a little rope so that we could see the National Police Memorial - a column made of marble and glass and containing the names of 1,600 officers killed in the line of duty. The column was designed by architect Norman Foster and......

Slow news day? Thank God then for novelty, election-themed gnomes! The story starts at UKTV Style Gardens, the incredibly popular...erm...gardening channel. A survey by the channel recently found that 1 in 10 British homes still own a gnome, and so the brainiacs at UKTV set out to deliver a modern replacement for the traditional 'tacky' garden gnome. The result: three, specially commissioned, high specification hand-crafted gnomes of Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy.......

Speaking, as we were, of billboards and advertising*, we'd be interested to hear what Londonist readers think of the Dove ads that seem to be up everywhere at the moment. On one building near London Bridge they share space with an ad for the Lib Dems that has forever twinned (in our minds at least) Charles Kennedy's campaign for a real alternative with curvy women hanging around in their underwear. While trying to figure......

The PM spent a portion of this morning sitting in Buckingham Palace asking the Queen to dissolve Parliament, perhaps nibbling a Mr Kipling's Fondant Fancy (or if you're a fan of David Icke, dancing naked in the guts of small children and laughing about the success of their reptilian plot to do away with Princess Di). Either way, the important thing now is that the election is ON! May 5th is the date to......

Within the next few weeks Parliament is to become a strictly no smoking zone. By Easter time MPs, staff and visitors will all be barred from lighting up in Westminster Palace and even a sneaky bifter in the the Strangers' Bar will be out of the question. There's a great quote in today's Independent from Stephen Pound, Labour MP for Ealing North, where he syas, "I had to light a cigarette to steady my......