Our Prime Minister got into a sticky situation with a protester. And with that, our obligation to use that godawful and obvious phrase is done. The stickiness in question is the Superglue applied to Gordon Brown's sleeve by Dan Glass, a member of the protest group Plane Stupid with which he was hoping to glue himself to our country's leader to encourage him to 'stick to promises.' Plane Stupid has a reputation for bare......

We've been ever so slightly bored by the anodyne coverage of today's Budget from the usual media sources. Luckily, Channel Five has done the decent thing and injected a bit of originality into proceedings. On today's 5pm and 7pm bulletins, Natasha Kaplinsky will be assisted by a 21 inch papier mache sculpture of the chancellor, Alistair Darling. Ham-based artist Anita Russell, a learning support assistant at Twickenham's Orleans Park School, sculpted the miniature minister......

The family, friends and supporters of people missing people are marching through London today to highlight the lack of support available to them, the ones left wondering what's happened to their loved, vanished ones. The charity Missing People provides some support and advice and maintains a register of missing people. Importantly, they recognise the right of people to go missing and stay missing. But the organisers of today's march, mothers searching for lost sons,......

Blogophobia: an irrational fear, intolerance of, or aversion to the blogosphere. Martin Amis has been accused of far worse, but after hearing him talk at RADA yesterday evening, this was the only accusation we felt it safe to lodge against him. The offending remark came early in the evening when, during his reading from the recently published The Second Plane, Amis effectively dissed Londonist and its ilk as “semi-literate windbags of the blogosphere”. Gauntlet,......

Ken hits back at Porsche and tells them to get on their bikes. Or at least to produce some low-emission mean machines. The Osama bin London bunch are jailed. Laid back burglar saunters into Downing Street…and escapes without a custodial sentence. Lib Dem MP for Kingston causes a bit of a rumpus. TfL Mrs. Mops congratulated for Blackwall Tunnel quick fix. Well, it’s good to give our favourite Aunt Sally a positive spin for......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 4th February 1915: Norman Wisdom is born in Marylebone. He would become a very successful entertainer, as well as (bizarrely) a cult film icon in Albania. Tuesday – 5th February 1924: The Greenwich Time Signal pips are broadcast on BBC Radio for the first time. (Lots more geeky detail on this is available in our post from this time last year.) Wednesday – 6th February 1875: The......

As the name suggests, this post could be something out of a fairy tale. Well, a modern day one anyway. So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Once upon a time there was a lovely pensioner called Dick Whittington who left his home in Weston Super-Mare in Somerset to come to London to seek his fortune. Or, rather, his pension. He, like many others reckon it's about time there was a rise in......

Man arrested for having a fake gun near Downing Street. Beware anyone thinking of entering Street Wars. C-charge removed 70,000 cars from the centre last year. Olympics get second major sponsor. We reckon we know the third ;-) Canary's 'incredible journey', actually a bit lame. Image courtesy of ponyintheair via the Londonist flickr group.......

Londonist was much struck by the documentary Taking Liberties and got in touch with director Chris Atkins to find out more. Is it really just motivated by a personal hatred of New Labour? Why do they want to ASBO John Reid? And what's this about rolling full-tilt into a group of rozzers while stuffed inside a bin?! Read on to find out more ... What prompted you to make Taking Liberties? I woke up......

A century of plastic is being celebrated at the Science Museum! Eubank arrested after he drove his 32ft seven tonne protest lorry past an armed patrol, entered Whitehall and approached Downing Street. Again. Go to the Museum of London this summer, go to the requisite room and you shall see the skeleton of a headless Roman. Metronet are to 'streamline'. Ooo, ooo, aerodynamic tunnels allowing bullet train speeds? Nope. A crowded-platform's worth of redundancies.......

Two views of Downing Street, 1926 and 2007. It's part of the amazing work being done by the Flickr group 'Wonderful London', who seek to recreate all the panels from the book of the same name by St John Adcock (1926/7). This particular pairing was made by group admin Simon Rigglesworth, who thanks a 'PC Luton' for providing access. Prime-ministers come and go (eventually), yet the little street rarely changes. Thanks to the protection......

We mentioned a while back that the US embassy is considering a move from its traditional Grosvenor Square home. Google Maps seem to have the scoop on the new address. If you search for American Embassy in the UK version of Google Maps, you're pointed towards the large Post Office, just off Oxford Street (although the displayed address is correct). The Register, who discovered this quirk, think it's a counter-terrorism measure. Google has quite......

Of their Mayfair embassy, that is. Reports suggest the Yanks might be planning a strategic withdrawal from Grosvenor Square, after nearly 70 years occupation. The U.S. Embassy (USE) is assessing various property management options, among which are continued possession of its current premises or relocation," the embassy said in a statement. The Eagle-topped concrete box has been the target of countless protests and threats over the years, and local residents and businesses are concerned......

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted rape after attacking a woman involved in a car accident: She was driving in Enfield, north London, on Wednesday night, when she collided with a traffic island. Two men offered to help but took her to Theobolds Park Road where officers say she was indecently assaulted. Police were called by members of the public who saw the semi-naked woman... A 19 year old has been......

Crazy story in The Independent today: A former British National Party election candidate who stockpiled explosive chemicals for use in an anticipated civil war in Britain boasted that he would shoot Tony Blair... Police raided the home of Robert Cottage, who held "strong views on immigration", and found 21 types of chemicals which could create explosives when mixed together, along with a 300-page computer document called the "Anarchy Cookbook", which detailed how to make......

oh dear. Tony Blair has been interviewed for a second time by police investigating cash-for-honours allegations. Downing Street disclosed that the 45 minute questioning took place in Number 10 last Friday, but was kept secret at the request of the Metropolitan Police. What happens if Levy turns rat? Will the whole thing end badly in an Infernal Affairs / The Departed inspired series of head wounds and elevator doors? Could it be that Blair......

Prime Ministers both past and present have made the arts news because of paintings of places they enjoy to pass the time when not thinking about war and stuff. Cherie Blair posed semi-nude for artist Euan Uglow back when "she was an unknown trainee barrister in her mid-twenties". The unfinished painting, Striding Nude, Blue Dress, while not quite on the same level as One Night in Paris, does reveal a little more than we......

Songs about London: there have been many. But we thought it was about time someone mapped them out. So, using the power of Platial, that's exactly what we did. The map above contains 100 famous and not-at-all famous songs about specific locations in our city. It can be magnified, scrolled, and even added to if you're a Platial member. It's interesting to note the most popular places to inspire songwriting. Soho and Chelsea are......

Londonist was up bright and early yesterday to see the mammoth arrive in Trafalgar Square. A year ago and we would have been quite charmed by the little furry fellow, but that was before the arrival of The Sultan's Elephant. In fact our first question of the day, who would win in a fight between... died on our lips. It was quite obvious that The Sultan's Elephant would quite happily pick up a life......

Details are coming in of an apparent security breach at 10 Downing Street last night. According to reports, a "man was discovered inside a secure area at the back of Downing Street at 10.30pm last night. He is now in custody at a central London police station." Police have said that although the man was carrying a large kitchen knife there is no 'terrorist connection' and the intruder would "have had to get through......

If our coverage of the latest terror-alertage has seemed a little light the reasons are two-fold. 1) We got the nod from Downing Street early last week that this would be a good time to get out of the country so a small percentage of Londonists missed all the kafuffle by braving the dangerous skies just prior to the balloon going up or by relaxing on Eurostar with more hand luggage, reading material and......

So welcome to the second instalment of our new column on the techy aspects of London life. This time, we’re plugging in our ipods and enjoying a new way of exploring the capital: online audioguides. The idea of being guided round an area of interest – usually a museum – by an audio track is, of course, nothing new. We’ve all used those bulky museum players with big red buttons, which the Kids from......

There will be a direct action march and demo against the invasion of Lebanon today, starting at Gilbert Street near Bond Street station, 1.00pm. This demo welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to express their feelings about the current situation in Lebanon. Instructions for those attending are to be creative, bring enthusiasm, anger and / or passion. Bring banners, bring noisy things, fake blood and anything will get your point across. Follow-up meeting planned for......

Pupils from a Southwark school will hand in a peace petition and a dove of peace sculpture, made out of toy guns, toy soldiers, war planes and coins to Downing Street in the run-up to the UN Summit on Small Arms in New York. The London Assembly is questioning the 'value and effectiveness' of money spent promoting tourism in the capital. A new survey into just how miserable a place London could be has......

Britain's contingency plan for an outbreak of bird flu in the country is being tested today and tomorrow with a real-time simulation of an infection. Exercise Hawthorn uses hundreds of volunteers to simulate a bird flu outbreak from three days into the crisis. The DEFRA-run exercise includes organisations such as the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Environment Agency, Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence, and other Government departments. It is based on a......

Humphrey, we hardly knew you: The 10 Downing Street cat Humphrey has died, a spokesman for the prime minister has confirmed. The black and white feline passed away at the home of a Cabinet Office worker who took him when he "retired". Humphrey was adopted by Number 10 after wandering into the building as a stray while Margaret Thatcher was PM in 1989. Surviving the Thatcher years only to be ousted by the pussy......

There's an interesting article over on the Beeb's magazine today about the experiences of Rajesh Thind, a British Asian who decided to grow a full beard in order to see if people's attitudes to him changed in the wake of the London bombings. Short answer: yes. The results were immediate and very intense. People were moving off Tubes to get away from me; I would sometimes have a whole carriage to myself. I felt......

Shock news: People weren’t arrested outside parliament yesterday. Indeed, a group of carol singers, who were previously threatened with arrest under the Serious Organised Crimes and Police Act, were allowed to wassail unmolested in Parliament Square. The law bans demonstrating without police permission within a half mile radius of the Palace of Westminster, as Maya Evans, one of last night’s carollers, found out recently when she was arrested outside Downing Street for reading out......

Be a beachcomber, a Parisian wino, an Italian pimp, or a Danish pervert, but stay away from the Armed Forces Good advice from Hunter S Thompson back in 1957 still stands today. Even though their names change over the years it’s a sad truth that the people responsible for sending their fellow human beings into harm's way still do so often with self serving agendas influencing their decisions rather than more noble thoughts of......

It's probably a good job we don't have an -Ist outpost in the Antipodean regions otherwise there may have been a bit of gloating going on yesterday. As it is we here at Londonist will be able to placate our celebratory appetites by joining tens of thousands of other people who will "line the streets of London" today to congratulate the England cricket team as they are paraded through the city upon the traditional......