I know we seem to be shocked by the arrival of every new month, but doesn’t it seem odd that it’s June already? We feel that it should be summer, and we should be on fabulous holidays at the beach. Since we are not (and since it is clearly not summer yet), we’ll watch some TV this week instead. On TV, Londonist likes: Wednesday, 4 June My New Best Friend (BBC4, 21:00-22:00) We find......

A couple of years ago Chris Roberts - who will be leading our 4th Londonist Walk on Friday evening - (and who is no relation to the Grantham Roberts clan) co-wrote True Blue: A musical about Margaret Thatcher in a bid to come to terms with his own, and his nation’s, past and more importantly setting Geoffrey Howe and others to music. Who better then, to send along as guest reviewer to a spanking......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 29th October 1986: The M25 ‘London orbital’ motorway is officially opened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, at a ceremony at the last section to be completed (junctions 22 and 23 in Hertfordshire). Tuesday – 30th October 1883: A group known as the Fenian Dynamiters detonates a bomb on the Metropolitan Railway, injuring 62 people. Wednesday – 31st October 1971: An IRA bomb explodes on the 33rd floor......

Red Ken is at it again. Usually so full of love for all things PC that you’d think he would change his name to Percy Clemmons, Ken’s latest ‘morally outraged’ hissy fit comes as somewhat of a surprise. “Ken Livingstone launched a vitriolic tirade against violent TV, films, gangsta rap and Margaret Thatcher yesterday - blaming them all for making Britain violent.” When is the last time you heard gangsta rap and Margaret Thatcher......

Chris Roberts (not pictured) is a man of many talents. He's traced the origins of nursery rhymes, surveyed London's bridges and even written a musical about Margaret Thatcher. And then there's the Evening Standard random headline generator. Most recently of all, he took us on a walk around the Pool of London. His latest project, One Eye Grey (available at not enough good bookshops), is the first penny dreadful for over a hundred years......

This Day In London’s History 1990: Pandemonium in Westminster as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher fails to win outright victory over Michael Heseltine in the Conservative Party leadership contest. Following a lengthy period of discontent from her own party, including the resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe from his position as Deputy Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher’s leadership was formally challenged for the second time in as many years, this time by Michael Heseltine. It was widely......

Muslim protesters disrupted a speech by John Reid in Leytonstone today after he urged Muslim parents to monitor their children for signs of 'radicalisation'. Several protesters were led from the room after describing Reid as an "enemy of Islam." Best local story of the day: ex-Simply Red singer strips off in a busy high street to protest about the lack of youth facilities. Next year the Barbican will mark the 30th anniversary of punk......

Brown Not Dropped From Campaign Launch Evidently, the Blair/Brown spat has been patched up: The Chancellor was present at the launch of Labour's local election campaign this morning. Though whether Blair could really drop the man that he personally is touting as his successor from such an important event is doubtful. The two men have a notoriously rocky relationship, and no doubt Blair's failure to announce a handover date is pissing off the man......

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......

After spending last week photographing dead presidents, we thought it only decent to turn our services to former British prime ministers. The Parliament Square Collection Dead monarchs have Westminster Abbey; prime ministers have Parliament Square. There’s six of the blighters here, with a seventh – David Lloyd George – in the works if funding can be raised. Canning by Richard Westmacott (1832); Peel by Matthew Noble (1851); Lord Derby also by Noble (1874); Palmerston......

Think back to 1985. Margaret Thatcher was in power; there was no internet; uh, people had stupid hairstyles and wore legwarmers and stuff. And, up until October of that year, there was no such thing as Neighbours. Unthinkable, isn't it? The residents of Erinsborough have entwined themselves into the fabric of British life to an extent that is remarkable for a homegrown soap, let alone for one set thousands of miles away. This is......

It's so easy to drift through life accepting the status quo (not the kind appearing in Coronation Street and beating up Les Battersby, silly, the other things-as-they-are-now kind) and never bothering to think about who takes care of the little details. Who picks up the discarded copies of Metro after the morning rush hour? Who cuts the grass in the communal garden? When you arrive at your desk at 9am - give or take......

There have been rumours going around for a few months now that Amy Jenkins' 'seminal' drama series This Life was to make a comeback ten years on. Yesterday though, the Sunday papers seemed to be pretty confident that the cult series was due to return around Christmas time with the original cast: Its creator and principal writer, Amy Jenkins, has met members of the cast to discuss a one-off special to mark the BBC......

So Orlaith the weepy pixie is still in, and Citizen Science, man of the future, is out. Only half a percent difference, apparently. Well, whatever. Fuck you, Great British Big Brother voting public, fuck you. Was it bad thetans that made you vote against Science-tology? Was Xenu or whatever the fuck he’s called secretly influencing your thoughts from his magic multi-dimensional spaceship in Alpha Centauri? Well, whatever, fuck you. Big Brother is going to......

If Londonist ever had to get itself a 'board of directors' a few names would immediately spring to mind: Iain Sinclair, Peter Ackroyd...and Lee Jackson. Lee is the author of three historical thrillers as well as a huge, illustrated book on Victorian London. He is also the creator of victorianlondon.org, a website he describes as "a resource for anyone interested in how life was lived in Victorian London". So, as you an imagine, we......

With the threat of a return to a Conservative government hanging over us once again we've been reminiscing about the bad old days and in particular Margaret Thatcher: the woman who stole our milk, but never our hearts. Of course it wasn't all sinking fleeing Argentinean battleships and snuggling up with the likes of Pinochet. Without Thatcher Spitting Image would have been without a leading lady and the miner's strike at least gave us......

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......