The Gordon Brown statue saga has intrigued psephologists and, er, wax-ologists for months now: would our embattled PM be given his own waxwork at Madame Tussauds, or have the curators bargained that, with the odds of his removal ever-shortening, the task of crafting those craggy features into a lifelike visage isn't worth the effort? As we reported earlier this month, Tussauds turned the decision over to a public vote. The results are in: nearly......

Our lonely PM's glowering grimace doesn't lend itself easily to sympathy, but it would take a heart as hard as granite (or Granita, even) not to feel for Gordon Brown's plight. Having spent ten years waiting for the top job, in just ten months of Brownism Labour finds itself rudderless, mauled in the local elections and turfed out of City Hall. Yesterday was Brown's first appearance in Parliament since last week's calamities, and he......

The course of true democracy never did run smooth, as proved at some hapless polling stations in yesterday's election fever. We say fever... it was more like a mild sweat. Polling officials in Barnet were certainly sweating when their ballot papers didn't turn up on time for the earlybird 7am start, disappointing voters eager to elect before work. All was well by 7.21am precisely, though so let's hope the briefly disenfranchised were able to......

The day has finally arrived. After months of campaigning, it's finally your turn to have your say and elect a London Mayor for the next 4 years. And not only that, as was highlighted yesterday, there are some other things you need to make your mind up about too. Hopefully, you've had a lovely helpful leaflet through your door to steer you through the polling minefield but if not, here are the basics: 1. Find......

Londoners are all hot and bothered over the exact voting procedure they will be faced with in the mayoral election, according to the Evening Standard. The use of the second preference system appears to be causing some puzzlement, with 30% of those surveyed by the paper admitting they were unaware of its employment in tomorrow’s vote, and just 39% claiming they were fully clear about the process. It seems that amidst all the insults......

Muddled in the mind about who you're going to vote for in the upcoming Mayoral elections? The Vote Match website will help you out. You're asked to agree or disagree with 25 statements, and then indicate the issues that matter most to you. Vote Match compares your answers to those of the main candidates and presents you with a ranked list of who you might like to vote for. It has some inevitable holes -......

With voting now closed for the Bloggies 2008 we're sitting on the edge of our un-ergonomic seats awaiting the results (the awards ceremony will be held at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, USA on Monday, March 10 with the results posted online shortly afterwards). Who will be crowned Best European Weblog? The suspense is killing us. In the meantime then, how nice to wake up on a foggy Wednesday and......

Thanks to a concerned reader, we were alerted today to a potential tragedy in the making. It seems that the folks over in Monopoly Land are holding an online vote to choose the world’s top twenty cities (in addition to two wild cards) for its Here & Now: World Edition version of the classic game. Winners will be awarded prime real estate slots in the world edition board game – leading us to wonder......

If you were wandering around Bayswater last night and wondering why you were surrounded by several thousand Americans, it's not because we started granting political asylum to those seeking refuge from the Bush regime (a bit late for that, really). No, it's because last night, Democrats Abroad held their very own Super Tuesday event for expatriates who wanted something more tangible than pointing and clicking for their favourite candidate. Obama advocates and Hillary supporters......

Just a little reminder that voting in the Eighth Annual Weblog Awards closes tomorrow. We're still bubbling over that Londonist is shortlisted in the Best European Weblog category and bursting with great things to bring you this year. We'd love it if you'd show us you care, pop over here and make your vote count for the Londonistas in the house.......

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

Who wants to be in the office today? Who wants to be told to take alternative routes because there aren't enough drivers on the Circle Line? Who wants to choose the outcomes of something you have a direct investment in? If you do, head down to The Albany in Deptford for Who Wants To Be? tomorrow night with £10.00 and a few ideas of what you would like to do with £1,000.00... The People......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 14. Poll-itics Well, I did a quick little poll this week amongst group of 26 professional people aged 20 – 35. Just to ask them what they thought were the most and least important issues to the following parties: Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Socialist, BNP and UKIP. The results produced from this (admittedly tiny)......

It would seem that Mayor Livingstone, famous for courting the unusual, is at it again. He is new-best-friends with the Polish community in London. His jolly japes this time include a Polish reception at Town Hall, replete with pierogi and pickles, and a trip to POSK, the Polish Community Centre in Hammersmith. He is quite the darling of the Polish press, by all accounts. Of course only the very cynical would suggest that it has......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

With the news that Boris Johnson is polling 6% ahead of Ken Livingstone among current voting intentions in the capital, were he to be selected, you might think that his rivals for the Tory nomination would just quietly throw in the towel and get behind the man. Not Andrew Boff, who, as we noted previously is not one to take a hint from the electorate, and has taken some time to give a lengthy......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

The whole country is still mid-way through the respectable mourning period after our annual Eurovision trouncing. Scooch's camp ditty about aviation unfortunately crashed and burned (boo!), and with no survivors (phew!).Perhaps the ultimate in cheesy music requires more planning time? Five years out, BBC London is already well-advanced in its contest to pen a new 'anthem' for London's Olympics. A panel of experts in this type of thing has already picked through the detritus......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

It seems like, all across the network, folks were up to no good. Maybe it was all the green beer from last weekend... Gothamist spent the week writing about New Yorkers behaving badly: at the post office, at the Garden, and at the fertility clinic. Calvin Klein may not be misbehaving, but he's just a little dirty, and in a completely different way than some NYC kitchens. SFist had its share of misbehave-rs, too, like......

Tessa 'Watch me keep a straight face' Jowell finally gave in and announced that yes, the 2012 Olympics will cost in excess of £9 billion. Thats a lot of zeros. Can't we just buy everyone a copy of Escape to Victory instead? Everyone's a winner in that except the Nazis. Central government will pay 4.93 billion pounds - in addition to 1 billion pounds already committed - to pay for the games and regeneration......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

We'd like to start this week's run-down by wishing a very happy birthday to parent blog Gothamist, which turned four on Friday. If it wasn't for them, the rest of us wouldn't be here. They celebrated their birthday by nabbing an interview with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, who misses NYC public transportation when he's working in LA. They also reported on NYU students protesting a band whose name is also known as a slur,......

Londoners, unite! Our jampots need us. Marmalade, the sticky stuff that gels our country’s identity together, is in danger of extinction. Only we can save it. Shockingly, a recent report from market analyst TNS, reveals that sales of marmalade have dropped by 4.4% in the past year whilst sales of honey and jam are on the increase. Apparently the sappy youfs of England can’t handle the tang of marmalade and crave the instant sugary......

Ok, we've had a good cry in the corner and kicked as many shins as possible over this, but time now to take a deep breath and finally get over not being nominated for a Bloggie this year. Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Iain Sinclair and Black Sabbath didn't get nominated either so we're in good company (shut up, this is our way of dealing with it). Anyway - we are still very happy to......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ... Oh sorry. We were just listening to David Cameron's favourite band, The Smiths. Bit of an odd choice then that he'd settle on Mike 'I'm a Celebrity Vote Me In Here' Read as a candidate for London Mayor: Mr Read said he was seeking financial backers after......

The Barnet and Potters Bar Times have the scoop of the season today, with this rip-roaring tale of high tension and political struggle. A shed built by the chairwoman of Barnet Council's Hendon area planning sub-committee without the necessary planning permission has finally been approved - despite two of the three councillors voting on it objecting and abstaining. This is what it means to be British. The gripping battle went right down to the......