Here’s what we’ve learned whilst you’ve been putting your Summer wardrobe back in mothballs: Those clever boffs at UCL have developed an on-line surname toy: trouble is it is so popular that it seems to be permanently fazed. Ken has defended Sir Ian Blair against claims of racism. Anyone wanna buy a Buddhist temple in Upper Norwood? The last lady veteran of WW1, who was originally from Lewisham, has died aged 109. A 15......

Sir Ian Blair concedes that crime figures don’t really figure. The East London Line work is proceeding apace. Good news for most of us: bad news if you live in New Cross Gate. The Masters Cup is moving to the 02 from next year. This is apparently good news for tennis fans. The cost of living in London is too high. And stressful, very very stressful. Several dodgy language colleges are busted. (That’s dodgy......

Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people. But bullets need guns to fire them and people to pull the triggers, so it's a bit of a joint effort all round. The technicalities of death aside, one thing we can probably all agree on, and speak up now if you don't, is that we don't need guns on the streets. Of any kind. We'd rather not even have them in the hands of the police......

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......

Here’s what we learned this weekend, whilst you were drawing up your Christmas card lists (or crossing people off them): It’s been a bad weekend for London’s performers, with even the ROH being dissed, and one band getting the worst review this Londonista has ever seen. But it has been a great couple of days for pussy cats, with three of them being rescued from a derelict flat, and another being turned into a......

Here’s what we’ve learned this weekend: Today is Remembrance Sunday which actually falls on 11th November - Armistice Day. The Queen and other Royals attended the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall last night. The Ceremony of Remembrance and Cenotaph Parade take place on Whitehall from 10.30am with Two Minute Silence at 11:00am. There was some pomp, circumstance and kids with strawberries on their heads at the Lord Mayor's Show yesterday. The......

A snack bar in Westminster is fined £2,500 after the council find a whole world of filth. Members of the London Assembly have passed a vote of no confidence in Sir Ian Blair. Doesn't really make any difference. Two of the world's top 10 universities are in London. Tfl's trial of live CCTV streaming on London's buses is shelved. Image courtesy of Homemade via the Londonist flickr group.......

Anyone looking at this case for the first time would be dumbfounded. Were the Metropolitan Police Force in breach of health and safety laws when they shot an innocent man seven times in the head? Health and safety laws? Isn't that like prosecuting Genghis Khan for illegal immigration? Terminology aside, the Met were yesterday found guilty of endangering the public when, on 22 July 2005, they misidentified Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes as a......

With bonfire night just around the corner, Parliament must be getting a little nervous. Unblinking beady eyes will no doubt be focused on Southwark Crown Court today where Brian Haw takes on Sir Ian Blair over the removal of his placards way back in May 06. No updates as yet but yesterday the BBC reported a master stroke of anti-terror logic in that Haw's camp could present a terrorist target. More specifically that Haw's......

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......

Extremist literature in our libraries. Filed under 9/11 in the Dewey Decimal system? Man makes 15,000 nuisance phone calls. By way of community service, he's been given Bob Crow's number and unlimited calling credits. Alcoholic jockey tells court "Don't tag me, I won't be able to get my riding boots on". Sir Ian Blair receives another grilling over Menezes shooting. Image of the closing New Piccadilly Cafe courtesy of buckaroo kid via the Londonist......

What we now know about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes- * The stories that Jean Charles acted suspiciously by running away from the police and jumping the barriers at Stockwell tube are untrue. * He was not wearing a bulky jacket or a bomb belt with visible wires hanging out. * Members of the police force knew this (for instance, the ones that followed and shot him.) * Senior officers knew that......

The fight for London Mayor is seriously beginning to kick off. Our Ken, Greg Dyke, John Major, that the guy from the Big Issue - all have been fingered for the job. Now the latest candidate being touted is none other than Brian Paddick. Paddick is the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. In Lambeth he famously focused his efforts on class A drug dealers and took a 'relaxed' approach to cannabis use.......

Maybe because it is Friday afternoon and we swtiched off the hard working part of our brains (the Captain's Log for this particular Londonista has been showing "Offline" since Wednesday lunch time) but we thought we would share this WTF gem with you all as a special end of week treat. Brian Gordon, who has served as Tory councillor for Barnet for nine years, is in trouble for his criminal dress sense. Gordon's misdemeanour......

Here's the latest news following the recent fatal shootings: Did 15-year-old Billy Cox die because of a text message? Sir Ian Blair will be meeting John Reid to discuss the shootings. Cameron reckons it's down to the fathers and wants powers introduced to "compel" them to look after the kids. The BBC has been testing the mood on the streets: They have no conscience. They think they can just do whatever they like. They......

Ken Livingstone has won his court bid to overturn his suspension following the 'Nazi jibe' incident. The Department for Transport has announced simplified rail fares structure for London. Pricing for single and return rail tickets will be based on the Underground zones. Black cab TX4 - the next generation. Runs on a Bio-Diesel fuel-mix and has been tested over 'pave cobbled road surfaces'. The 2012 Olympic Games in London will be a "huge target"......

Ian Blair is going to have to break out his URGENT REVIEW rubber stamp once again this morning, after a huge row erupted over a decision not to post a Muslim officer at the Israeli embassy. The Sun originally broke the story that Constable Alexander Omar Basha of the diplomatic protection group had told his bosses he was "unable to help guard the embassy in west London because he morally objected to Israel's 34-day......

As mentioned in the Extra, Extra, Ian Blair finally loses it: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said parts of London are returning to an era of neighbourliness and low crime. He said residents in Haringey, north London, are now happy to leave their front doors open and unlocked. Sir Ian said community-based Safer Neighbourhood Teams were making people feel as safe as they did 25 years ago. He also likened neighbourhood police......

Normal service has now resumed at Heathrow and Gatwick, however... ...Talks aimed at avoiding the bank holiday strike at Stansted ended last night without agreement. Well done Haringey - Sir Ian Blair says you can all leave your front doors unlocked (you're not going to listen to him are you?). London's police are environmentally police; they've just put an order in for 117 Honda Civic Hybrids. The woman with the longest fingernails in the......

First it looked like it was going to be a farce, then we had a report that maybe charges would be brought against the police for the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes. The Guardian now reckons that we're back to health and safety violations: the CPS is expected to announce on Monday that the Metropolitan police as an organisation will be charged with breaching health and safety at work laws over the shooting,......

A 35-year-old man has been arrested in Surrey for the murder of Sally Anne Bowman who was stabbed and seriously sexually assaulted in September last year in Blenheim Crescent, south Croydon. Kings Cross Station has reopened this morning now that the gas cylinders in the nearby building have cooled down. More than half of British Muslims believe that Sir Ian Blair should resign. Thames Water has been warned that unless they act now, come......

We love spy-fi shows like Alias, especially the bits about encrypted data being stolen from shielded hard drives stored behind retina sensitive blast doors in bunkers only accessible via corridors filled with lethal security devices. And then when the data is eventually reached it's encrypted up the wazoo and you need the DNA of six senior officer to decode the key... must be a bit like that working on London's anti terror beat. They......

How did a thirteen-year-old kid end up in Tooting, driving a grey Ford Fiesta which had bullet holes in the door? Sir Ian Blair has said he won't resign, quoting Mark Twain into the bargain: "accounts of my demise are premature." Knob. The London Assembly has noted the number of affordable homes has fallen 'quite sharply from 44.9% in 1997/1998 to 28.2% today. Ken has brought the 'car pollution tax' one step closer by......

The two brothers shot during the Forest Gate raid have given a press conference. Meanwhile Tony Blair has given his backing to Ian Blair. Expect Ian to go within the week. David Cameron wants an X-Factor style system to choose the next London mayor. It's believed Ken will sing I will Survive. A male nurse from the Royal London has won his sex discriminiation case. London still has no idea where to put its......

So it turns out that it took 78 coppers to remove Brian Haw's placards earlier this week, and that this has been seen as 'overkill' by certain members of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Well, no shit. 78 policemen at 3 in the morning? What were they expecting would happen? "Better send a shit load of men down there sir, Brian 'the most famous pacifist in London' Haw may have a semi-automatic squirreled away somewhere......

If our drought gets any worse they might have to ship water in (actually it's just one suggestion right now). The cost of the Olympics just went up, from £1.5 billion to £2 billion (it's a good job we're still crazy for scratchcards isn't it?). The Lord Mayor of The City of London, Alderman David Brewer, is over in Bangkok right now. He's discussing town planning though, not enjoying ladyboys. London's beat bobbies have......

Sir Ian Blair flies out to New York to lecture on the threat of 'home-grown mass-assassins'. Delicious opportunity for satire ensues. Meanwhile, his Met minions have 'mapped' the networks of criminal gangs operating in London. Sadly, it won't be available as a Google Earth plug-in. Perhaps they used it this weekend, when 200 officers raided The Fridge in Brixton, on a drugs bust. Eleven people were arrested. Bromley continues to collapse in on itself.......

Commissioner "sorry" For Phone Tap Blair is in trouble again. No, not the PM, the other one! - Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said he is sorry for recording a telephone conversation with Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith. He claims that he taped the conversation as the two men were discussing a complex issue, and Sir Ian had nobody to take notes. Lord Goldsmith was said to be "rather cross". Liberal Democrat Home......

Met chief Sir Ian Blair secretly recorded a confidential conversation with Attorney General Peter Goldsmith during the investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. Ironically the call was about the admissibility of telephone wire tap evidence in court. Met officers have contacted lawyers acting for the Jean Charles de Menezes' family to ask for permission to examine DNA samples taken after his death in connection with a rape case. Thames Water is......

The Guardian reckons that Ian Blair is a bit of a lying scumbag: The commissioner of the Metropolitan police has repeatedly said that he was unaware that the victim was not a suicide bomber until 24 hours after the Brazilian was shot on July 22 2005, a day after several attempted attacks on the London transport system by terrorists. But several witnesses have told the Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry that senior officers feared......