Perhaps your New Year’s resolutions have all made their way to the rubbish bin by now. You’re sneaking ciggies again, you’re spending more nights at the pub than not, and you’ve worked out exactly two times, despite the shiny new gym membership. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. The history of literature is filled with stories of writers and their vices. It may just be a sign of genius. Still, you can up your......

Four years, countless consultancy fees, umpteen broken promises and many millions of pounds later, Clissold Leisure Centre in Stoke Newington is finally re-opening this weekend. For those who've not followed the saga, here's the story in brief. In 2000 the Centre opened amidst a brass band's worth of pomp and publicity, the very model of a modern, major, New Labour endorsed Lottery-funded Millennium project. Come early 2004, the facility was closed, having accumulated a......

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......

Noel Gallagher yesterday did an about face on the reacharound he gave Tony Blair ten years ago and said that the PM hadn't quite lived up to expectations. Isn't it nice when the musical establishment has its finger pressed so hard on the political pulse that they can find the time to point this kind of thing out to us? "Nobody ever mentions Labour, they mention Tony Blair now. Everything is Tony Blair's fault.......

John Reid's a man that we normally don't agree with or even listen to much. He's another of New Labour's mongrel cabinet that shit won't stick to - although it seems somehow fitting that we've ended up with a Secretary of State for Defence who used to hang out in the villa of a Serbian war criminal. Must make those chats with Blair seem like the good old days... But today the attack dog......

With the Editor away, I'm going to use this opportunity to toot my own horn (as it were) I (Nick) will be on Londonist's favourite London radio station, Resonance 104.4fm tonight, live at 9pm, as part of a panel on The Issue, a political discussion show hosted by Mark Hanson. Here is a synopsis of the show: Could it be that the New Labour project is about to explode? This week Mark Hanson asks......

We doubt that anyone is too surprised that Tony Blair needs a large crutch to support his bizarre decision making process, and fewer still were shocked that he decided to babble on about it now rather than say at the beginning of his leadership when it would have been political suicide. When you're approaching the last days in any job it's the perfect time to steal office supplies and start telling people what's really......

TV Troll is in a bit of a domestic mood this week; it must be the horrible cold weather. So, to celebrate this, here are a couple of programmes guaranteed to make those of a foodie bent quiver with joy. First up is Gordon Ramsay, whose Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (Tue 9pm C4) started up last week, but apparently really hits its stride this week. As a What Not To Do In The Kitchen, it......

David Cameron has barely been Leader of the Opposition for a quarter of a year, and already he seems to have abandoned his aversion to the "Punch and Judy politics" of Prime Minister's Questions. He and Blair tossed "flip flop" insults at each other today. Mr. Blair is apparently flip-flopping over his educational reforms. It seems that he has realised how embarrassing it would be if the only reason his reforms passed through the......

Hats off to London MPs Kate Hoey (Vauxhall), Rudi Vis (Finchley & Golders Green) and Jeremy Corbyn (Islington North), who were among the Labour rebels whose votes aided the defeat of the Religious Hatred bill. This New Labour fatwa was note-perfect Brazil, combining as it did an Orwellian assault on language and freedom with bureaucratic incompetence. File under "I" for "ID Cards". (On the subject of ID cards and bureaucracy, this story wins "headline......

Well, they did vote him in last May, after all. Yes, as every Londoner knows, the eleventh and most shocking entrant into the Celebrity Big Brother house is "Gorgeous" George Galloway, cigar-chomping scourge of the right, New Labour, journalists, Christopher Hitchens, and anyone who doesn't agree with him. TV Troll was so surprised when the camera panned up to show his smug turnip head, we almost fell off the sofa. The thought of Galloway......

Today Londonist introduces it's latest column: Inside Westminster. That's not cryptic or anything, it's a bloke who works in Westminster writing about what goes on... in Westminster. And what a day to start a regular political column? David Cameron has put on his leader's hat and made his way to the despatch box to go toe to toe with Tony for the first time. So let's get the inside view shall we... Question: How......

82 year old Labour actually. Londoner Walter Wolfgang made the mistake of disagreeing with Jack Straw at yesterday's Labour Conference and found himself manhandled and ejected by security guards. The pensioner shouted "nonsense" in reply to Straw's defense of the government's Iraq policy and was pounced upon by three men the size of sumo wrestlers. Another man sat nearby tried to intervene and was also thrown out. An over reaction by security staff perhaps,......

What is it with London councilors? After the rainbow flag ban and not allowing gay couples to hold their ceremonies on council property, they're now not letting Nelson Mandela in Trafalgar Square. Well his statue at any rate. What's that you say? Get the Mayor on the case? Before we could even light the Ken-signal atop Londonist HQ he had already jumped into the fray: "There can be no better place than our greatest......

This past weekend saw the doors close for the final time at the 113-year-old Whitechapel Library. The library was founded 1892 by the Liberal MP J Passmore Edwards (there's a nice picture of the man himself here) and quickly garnered a reputation as "the university of the ghetto". Saturday's Guardan reported on the closure, reminding us of the scores of notable men and women who have perused the lbrary's shelves: Jacob Bronowski, scientist and......

George Galloway is back in the UK and while this is probably something of a relief to the US Senate, left-wing Americans are sad to see him go. Galloway's stand against republican Norm Coleman has not only made the British MP something of a hero to the American left, but has also brought into sharp relief the rather weak stance that the Democrats have taken of late. Tony Blair may also be wishing that......

George Galloway squared up to Labour's Oona King in Bethnal Green this week in the first of what is bound to be a bruising series of clashes between the New Labour candidate and George’s Respect Party. When asked about the problem of drugs in the constituency, George answered in a way which suggests that he might still be a bit upset over that whole Iraq war business: "If the Royal Navy was not patrolling......

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......

It's happening: the TV series of the book of the blog of the oldest profession. Channel Four is to dramatise Belle De Jour. Belle, the purported London call girl, thus becomes holder of a unique title: while many bloggers and webmasters have parlayed their efforts into books, she is the first to wrangle a small-screen deal. All this because she stumbled across the unique marketing tactic that writing about sex might be popular. So,......