It may be pissing off our lorry drivers, but as well as improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions, Ken’s Low Emission Zone is also stoking the capital’s coffers. With nearly 1 in 20 vehicles affected by the emission standards initiative falling foul of the legal limits, cash tills rang to the tune of £500,000 this month from fines dished out. Anyone imagining TfL execs bathing in ball pools of cash, or luxuriating in......

Those pesky OAPs just keep getting into trouble. This time it's drug smuggling Artists take stand against Shoreditch high rises Tube film upsets train drivers. Well it doesn't take much Bozza waves treehugging card While TfL send Congestion Charge payer 3000 receipts "Urban Chameleon" image courtesy of urban:zoo by [windscreen fly] via the Londonist flickr group.......

Three letter acronyms abound in this story where Transport for London (TFL) have decreed that more environmentally friendly cars running on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are due to lose their 100% Alternative Fuel Discount (AFD) by 2010. This is a knock-on from the £25 congestion charge scheme for gas guzzlers and in an unpleasant twist of unfortunate injustice, a minority of motorists will find themselves not only losing their AFD but subsequently falling into......

In the realm of fuzzy math and statistical manipulation, nothing sounds so wonderful as things that'll add years to your life and nothing so scary as things that'll take those years away. And though we're not scientists or number-crunching pros, we don't want to feel like suckers when it comes to fear mongering figures. So let's take a look at London's newest set of mortality figures, which supposedly triumph the roughly quarter decrease in......

East is the new West. You read it here second. The battle begins. To save our post offices that is. Londonist is certainly not going to walk further or queue longer. Porsche versus Ken. This should be interesting. As another youth dies by the knife in Woolwich, gang members are consulted in Lambeth. Somethinng’s gotta give, that’s for sure. Pint in Peckham courtesy of Mot the Hoople’s flickr photo stream.......

Us and Paris have won an award for "visionary achievements in sustainable transportation and urban livability". Yes, such an award could only come from the US of A and it is courtesy of their Institute for Transportation and Development Policy that we are sharing such an honour. Ken's C-Charge scheme and best efforts to get us all on our bikes impressed the judges whilst we imagine our Parisian pals' fabulous Velib scheme won them......

A quick poll amongst the people milling beneath the Londonist penthouse reveals that, while mayoral candidate Boris Johnson may have the jet-pack of publicity strapped to his back, folk are less sure about his policies. The Henley MP is trying to rectify that. In addition to his Back Boris website, and promise to resurrect the Routemaster, Boris is now bringing out the big guns, with a vow to scrap the western congestion charge zone.......

We've not lately delved into what's been bubbling away in the run-up to London's elections next year. So Wilkommen, Bienvenu, Welcome to this new and possibly occasional feature to catch up with what's going on out there. Let's have a rummage and see who's up and who's down: Mayor Ken fights back in a hefty spat with Evening Standard over a hatchet-job on his race advisor. Standard's tactics are questionable, but the story went......

Fans of pomp and circumstance will line the streets of the City tomorrow to watch one of London’s fine old traditions unfold. Each year, the City of London gets a new Lord Mayor (most certainly not to be confused with the more well-known mayor who inhabits the glass testicle near Tower Bridge). Indeed, the office of Lord Mayor is so tied up in the ceremonial that the official web site doesn’t even bother to......

All cars must pay the congestion charge if they enter the congestion zone. That's £8 a day unless you are driving a taxi, a police car or one of those little buggies that runs on jam. Of course, Londonist sidesteps having to pay the charge by bounding around the city on the back of a giant mechanical deer. However, a number of enterprising individuals are registering their cars as taxi cabs in order to......

IBM will run the congestion charge. Will Haw's Law be revoked? London Grand Prix not ruled out. Got an opinion about Tube accessibility? Help TfL decide priority stations for step-free access. Read the background on Diamond Geezer. Did we mention that it's our birthday? Image courtesy of Homemade via the Londonist flickr group.......

The sixth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory), Sian Berry (Green), Fiyaz Mughal (Lib Dem). Chris Prior is an independent mayoral candidate standing on a very firm 'Stop Congestion Charging' ticket. We asked him why, and, as with all the other candidates, we also enquired whether he'd ever been sick on the Tube. Chris is the......

From BBC News: London must become car-free if it is to substantially cut carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report. Crikey. In response to the findings London Green Party member Jenny Jones said: "I have asked the London mayor to do a feasibility study into creating a car free pedestrian zone in central London linking all the main squares and parks. "We need to show that the car no longer rules in London......

The fifth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory), Sian Berry (Green). Today: Liberal Democrat candidate Fiyaz Mughal. He's competing with fellow LDs Brian Paddick and Chamali Fernando to represent his party in next year's elections. Would you vote for him? Read his ideas below. Where do you live in London and what do you like best......

The fourth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory). Sian Berry is the Green's candidate for next year's elections. Unlike the Tory rivals we've previously interviewed, she is a strong supporter of the congestion charge. She's the only person we've ever known to use the words 'The North London Line is good'. And she's also got a......

Sting starts Thames race, then goes from river police to rhythm Police, as the old band reunites for Twickenham concert. The real police are going to start using lie detectors in Lambeth (to detect trapeze artists). Trafalgar Square pigeon congestion charge gets an extended zone. Puma sighting. Again. This is getting tedious now. Can someone spot something more original like a numbat or a vampire octopus? Image of The Gathering Scottish festival courtesy of......

The third of our interviews with the Tory candidates for London Mayor. Previously, Victoria Borwick and Andrew Boff. Warwick Lightfoot has, no doubt, spent a lifetime tolerating jibes about his Tolkeinesque name. He's also acquired an outstanding CV that includes stints as Mayor of Kensington and Chelsea, Special Advisor to the Chancellor and 20 years experience as a councillor. Most impressively of all, he's the first Tory candidate to admit to vomiting on the......

The second of our interviews with the Tory candidates for London Mayor. Previously, Andrew Boff. Victoria Borwick is a born and bred London lass whose Mayoral campaign carries the tagline 'A red head not Red Ken'. She has 25 years of management experience and is currently a councillor for Kensington and Chelsea. She has four children, doesn't like tinny techno and knows a thing or two about Cleopatra's Needle. But does she have the......

Despite evidence to the contrary from Dr Who, alien visits to the UK appear to be on the wane. Newly released Ministry of Defence figures suggest a drop in UFO sightings, as LondonNet reports: In 1995 128 strange events in the skies over the UK were reported by the public, but by 2006 that figure had dropped to 97. As a comparison, in the same period, human tourism to Britain increased by close to......

Four Tories want to be our next Mayor. We contacted each of them to see where they stand on London's most pressing issues. And, of course, whether they've ever been sick on the Tube. Andrew Boff was the first to return answers. As Mayor, the Boffmeister would shrink the Boroughs, remove the C-charge...and use Second Life instead of the airports? Where do you live in London and what do you like best about it?......

New York and London have always had a bit of rivalry going on, about who's best. In recent times, London seems to have got the edge - New York's Mayor, for example, expressed worries that London was moving ahead as the world's financial centre. And frankly, we know that our chocolate's a hell of a lot better. But now Mayor Bloomberg has gone further. Announcing his new plans to combat climate change, he commended......

Ken, you have a contender. John Bird, successful businessman and founder of The Big Issue, announced his candidacy for Mayor of London and unveiled the accompanying manifesto. Mr Bird, running independently but courting interest from the Conservatives, said his platform would be one of ‘social inclusion,’ targeting youth crime, irresponsible businesses and housing problems in the capital. "The first thing I would do as mayor would be to look at the great oxygenators of......

The US Embassy is up for sale. At somewhere between 130,000 and 280,000 square feet depending on which reports you read, the place would make a lovely Mayfair residence for a large family (space for about 750 people, at the last count). And all this only for £90m or so, according to the BBC. In April the Embassy proudly announced it had finally succeeded in securing "100% certifiable green energy". This work had taken......

This is our favourite assault on police story ever. The headline: Woman accused of spraying cop with breast milk The details: It is alleged she was detained for trying to steal shoes from Lizard, in Hill Street, Richmond. After being arrested for theft she sprayed an officer with milk from her right breast. There's a 'right tit' joke in there somewhere... We expect the Standard to start an anti-breast campaign later today. The Sun......

British Olympic chiefs will not be swayed by anyone (their own sports experts) or anything (the facts) in their conviction that we will come fourth in the medal table in 2012. What's one lower down than bronze? oh yeah. Fuck all. "We're totally committed to fourth place - and I believe we can deliver it. We have a unique opportunity as the host nation in 2012, and the funding is there to match our......

Housing in London is very expensive indeed. In fact it's so expensive indeed that Londonist HQ is imaginary and we all live in Derby. However, thank your lucky charms that you aren't a lowly wannabe Argentinian farmer. He may not have to pay the congestion charge but farmland from the USA to Argentina is rising faster in price than apartments in Manhattan and London. This is all to do with the rising demand for......

Things have moved on since 1977 when Spielberg got the world in a tiz over close encounters of the third kind. These days we can go all the way up to five: First kind: A sighting of one or more unidentified flying objects Second kind: An observation of physical evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation Third kind: An observation of one or more occupants associated with one or more crafts Fourth kind: A human is abducted......

You were thinking that the 2012 Olympic Games were going to be an employment bonanza, right? You are a security guard or a retired policeman and were hoping to lend a hand for the extra police presence that will be required. In your mind you're already spending that extra cash on an extravagant holiday in 2013. If we may quote Nelson Muntz from 'The Simpsons' … 'Ha! Ha!'. It turns out Scotland Yard is......

David Cameron is trying to get an election as soon as possible. 7000 bags are still missing after problems at Heathrow on Sunday night. Bookings at Halal restaurants have gone up by 300%. Get driving. The congestion charge will be lifted between Dec 23 and January 1 inclusive. And finally, with Shaun Keaveney off to XFM, Alex Zane is your new host of XFM Friday breakfast. Photo taken from Fabio Venni's photostream.......

We're getting a 10-minute firework display to see in 2007: A sound and light show, including giant building projections, will precede the pyrotechnics at the London Eye, the mayor's office said. There will be free travel on selected services and no congestion charge between Christmas and the New Year. Mayor Ken Livingstone said the free travel would make it "easier to get out and about and safely home". Cool. We're already warming to the......