In another desperate attempt to do something useful about curbing youth crime and tackling gang culture today the Home Office published "The Gangs: You and Your Child". It's an attempt to help parents identify whether their kids might be involved with gangs and deliver sound advice about what to do about it. A bit like when they used to tell you to hide under the kitchen table with some tinned food when the bomb......

He’s back! Since we first heard the news that Paddington Bear would, after a 30-year sabbatical, shake off the dust of our bookshelves and embark on some fresh adventures, it’s been all we could do to contain our excitement – though stuffing ourselves with marmalade sandwiches certainly has helped. The wait is over. Paddington – or P.Bear, as we like to call him – is back in bookstores this week for his twelfth outing,......

Crime - how much does it cost? About £400 per Londoner, apparently. This is the claim made by the TaxPayers' Alliance. The group, dedicated to "campaigning for lower taxes and better government", has divined this sum by taking Home Office and police data on the economic and social costs of crime, then factoring in criminal justice system bills and adding "security measures, physical and emotional costs." Dividing this total - some £3bn - by......

Despite Londoners being inveigled mere days ago to report any suspicious activity to the police, people in Marylebone are now being advised to, er, do the opposite. The reason? A Home Office-run project is to simulate a dirty bomb attack on the capital. The trials, part of a study called Dispersion of Air Pollution and Penetration into the Local Environment, or DAPPLE, will involve scientists releasing colourless, odourless gas from canisters on the street.......

It's not quite the same as having the local bobby back on the beat, but a scheme trialled in south London that addresses public unease with the remote, impersonal nature of modern policing is set to be rolled out across London. The £325 million Home Office plan will see each council ward assigned a team of police and community support officers, with residents given a mobile phone number and email address to contact their......

Trying to end the year on a positive, if unglamorous note: Olympic demolition complete and Games declared on track West Ham United get behind campaign to stop young people killing each other, Home Office campaign criticised for not being strategic enough Winehouse arrested, bailed and declared biggest selling artist of the year while Dad slags off Doherty in the press Look out for Lily blooming in the spring Sobering image of Plaistow Fire Station......

Sir Ian Blair dismissed favouring non-white applicant recruits to the Met as "yesterday's solution" at a National Black Police Association debate yesterday. The recruitment bus rolls into Trafalgar Square's Diwali celebrations this weekend to demonstrate the Met's policy of targeting their recruitment at black and Asian communities. As they say, The better we reflect London's diverse communities, the better we're able to serve them. The Met is still struggling to represent London, however, and......

Everyone remembers the tragedy that was 7/7. In 2005, 4 suicide bombers killed 52 people. A further 800 were injured. Whilst it's still resonant to us, it's even more so for the survivors who today launched legal proceedings after the Home Office refused to hold an independent public enquiry. Lawyers have said that the group of survivors involved want the hearing to 'ensure lessons were learnt in the future'. Oury Clark Solicitors feel the......

The one-man protest that is Brian Haw, the only demonstrator allowed to air his views inside Parliament Square, may find himself surrounded soon. Instead of police circling him, however, it may well be other placard-waving peaceniks. Newly-minted PM Gordon Brown has called for a change in laws squelching the public’s right to protest within the grounds immediately surrounding Parliament. Currently, demonstrating in this area without prior police permission is prohibited by the Serious Organised......

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......

Apologies for the first-person perspective - normal service will resume after this post. About a year ago, Phil, a friend of mine, had a run-in with the British Transport Police over the use of a four-letter word - "shit" - when describing the accuracy or otherwise of a metal detector set up at Highbury & Islington station. I witnessed the whole thing and wrote about it on Londonist; the story was then picked up......

In the UK, public inquiries are used as a way of scrutinising our systems and making sure they work as they ought to. The tragic death of Victoria Climbié rightly triggered an inquiry which concluded that had timely action been taken on any one of twelve opportunities for intervention which were identified, Victoria might still be alive. More widely, the inquiry looked into how well – or how badly – public bodies work with......

The National Archives might be shut today (for maypole dancing or demonstrating - we just don’t know) but they’re amusing us all through the release of correspondence between Buckingham Palace and the Home Office from 1947 about affairs of grave, national importance. Wedding tat, to be exact. That pivotal moment in history when the good old, tacky ‘n’ tasteless, cheap and cheerful royal wedding souvenir trade emerged straying mutinously far from the acceptable tradition......

The kind of record-breaking attempt where you balance an egg on your head while performing La Traviata backwards in a vat of custard - Londonist thinks those are pretty lame, on the whole. The kind of record-breaking attempt where you stand up for free speech in the UK while pointing out the ridiculousness of the paranoid laws introduced by the government which curb the right to protest, however - those are the kind of......

Here's one that'll shift some papers. Prisoners are being kitted out with email. PRISONERS are to be given email access for the first time in a bid to cut reoffending. The project is designed to help inmates learn new skills for their release and to keep in touch with family and friends. A pilot scheme will start at Wandsworth jail in South London, but only when a system is in place to prevent "potential......

The government's plans to bring in high tech ID cards may have to go back to the drawing board after a Guardian investigation showed that biometric data could be electronically attacked and cloned with a £174 microchip reader. We say may have to back to the drawing board because so far the only response to the investigation has been a shrug of the governmental shoulders. Opposition parties have been quick to point out the......

Here at Londonist we’re a sucker for a damsel in distress, and so it is that we commend to you, dear reader, the plight of one Jennifer Nobis (that’s not her in the picture, incidentally - that’s somebody called Hess – you’ll see later what her portrait is doing here). Jennifer is very good at football. So good, in fact, that she has attracted the attention of Charlton Athletic’s womens' team who are keen......

Rauf Mohammed, the minicab driver accused of making a 'terrorist video' of London landmarks has been cleared by the jury at Woolwich Crown Court. The 26-year-old from Forest Gate had been accused by the Met of videoing certain London landmarks while "listening to hypnotic music about martyrdom,". The prosecution also said that Mohammed had "spoke of killing Western leaders including Tony Blair". Mohammed claimed that the video was simply a tourist video to send......

It's good to know that if there's one thing you can rely on in this crazy mixed up world we call... er... London, it's that the Met will always do their best. Like the slow kids on the special table at school it's not important that they eat the modeling clay it's that they do it with gusto: There is very little new under the sun, particularly when it comes to intelligence blunders by......

Those who hate both Big Brother (daily, all the time, C4/E4) and the World Cup might well have entertained thoughts of entering a house of peace, and taking holy orders. Potential bonuses include: no more trying to find things to delete because Systems Administrator tells you that you're over your mailbox limit; no more deadlines; no more £3.50 pints of beer; no more floating in a sea of sweat on the Tube; no more......

A 16 -year-old boy charged with the murder of the schoolboy Kiyan Prince will appear in court today. A 27-year-old woman was killed in Holborn on Saturday evening after a bus on Southampton Row, 'ploughed into traffic lights' and then mounted the pedestrian island where she was standing. The Home Office announced yesterday that an official at Lunar House in Croydon had been suspended over sex-for-asylum claims and an investigation is to be carried out.......

It may seem like a distant memory for many Londoners but for those directly affected, the events of the 7 July bombings are still as fresh as ever. For this reason, the publication of two major official inquiries into the bombings could prove just a little disappointing as reports have suggested they will be incomplete, due to sensitivity and legal constrains. A report by the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee will investigate whether there was......

Remember the trailer for Hellgate: London that we treated you to back in March? Well there's a comic book version on the way to fill in some of the background on the mayhem: The comic book provides the background story behind HELLGATE: LONDON. Issue “0” begins when MI5 service agent Lyra Darius discovers a human charnel house in London whilst investigating the affairs of recently resigned Home Office Minister, Lord Sumerisle. Soon afterwards, Lyra......

It's amazing how far you could get on the American dollar back in 1942: 'Feckless' WWII schoolgirls with 'lax morals' caused concern in government by skipping school, soliciting GIs - and catching venereal disease, papers show. Letters at the National Archives in Kew show much "trouble" was caused by the girls in the West End of London. For shame old granny Londonist! Wasn't there enough British spunk around or was it just a case......

30gms is a design blog. It's your daily dose of Fibre - a London design practice - a blog that brings together people "dedicated to exploring design and visual culture with your odd bit on found type, kerning and poorly placed apostrophes". Our kind of people then. We wanted to share one of yesterday's entries by Vikesh Bhatt - if you're a blogger and you get stopped by the police thanks to their racial......

An eventful day at Westminster today, with many revelations. The first was that the Government has now decided to allow its backbenchers a free vote on the proposed ban on smoking in public places. The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has been under fire for some time from the Commons Health Committe, who are tabling an amendment to the Bill proposing a total ban, as opposed to the partial ban that her Government are proposing.......

It’s like an old 1950s government propaganda flick… 4.4 km of track, four brand new stations, trains every 7-10 minutes, all delivered on-budget and before the deadline. This is the sort of can-do attitude that makes every one of us proud to be British. Yup, it's the new DLR extension, which has just been officially opened by Ken. (Although the trains have been running for a few days already, as Diamond Geezer chronicles.) We’re......

Did you know that our alert level had dropped? Well it has. As of the end of last week we're at 'Severe General' for the first time since July 7 (we were at 'Critical' before). The reason being that "intelligence sources do not have any specific information relating to imminent repeat attacks." Not that that's ever stopped them before. However, the only reason we know about this is becasue the Tories kicked up a......

The last edition of today's Standard contains an interview with Sir Ian Blair in which he denies a cover up over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes: These allegations strike to the heart of the integrity of the police and integrity of the Met and I fundamentally reject them. There is no cover-up. It is important that Londoners hear this: If you were going to define how to do a cover-up you would not......

The Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes is appealing for witnesses to the incident. At the same time the police have also released a statement saying that the 27-year-old's visa had expired two years ago, and the passport stamp giving him indefinite leave to remain "was not in use" on that date. It's a very obtuse statement, but the Home Office did add that they just "wished......