We've just heard about a burglary at a house in Stanmore, north London and the extraordinary swag the thieves took away. Not only was a penny black stamp worth £10,000 among the high-value items in the safe that was ripped out of a wall, there was apparently £175 worth of George Best bank notes.
Mixed with our sympathy for the unlucky owners for their loss, there's also a twinge of curiosity. George Best bank notes? Are these the beer tokens we hear of during preparations for a jolly outing to the pub?
As we are not on the side of criminals at Londonist, we are hoping the police can squeeze in a bit of old fashioned crook-catching between protest marches. An estimated 22,500 officers marched through central London today to protest against a pay rise that has only been backdated to 1 December while their Scottish counterparts have had their pay rise backdated to 1 September.
It should be a 2.5 per cent rise for English, Welsh and Northern Irish police officers but because the payment only goes back as far as 1 December, they are effectively only receiving 1.9 per cent. As police officers are not allowed to strike, this march is the most significant thing they can do within the law - and they are being policed by 150 of their own kind who must be finding this the easiest crowd control job ever as every person marching knows all the penalties for bringing alcohol, obstructing traffic or throw objects.
Did you see the protest march? Let us know what it was really like...
