Apparently London’s motorists are in a state of ‘panic’ as they are having trouble finding petrol stations near them…. A new report out today by petrol industry boffins Catalist reveals that a third of London’s forecourts have shut down since 2002, and that England as a whole has 617 cars per petrol station, which sounds quite a lot really. But hang on a minute. This is London. If there is no longer a garage in......

Anyone who has ever surfed the internet in a quest for enlightenment about British theatre will undoubtedly have come across the West End Whingers’ blog. By now, Andrew and Phil have become internet blogging stars, doing for theatre what Belle de Jour did for prostitution with only slightly less lubricant. Andrew and Phil have ranted against ticket prices, bar prices, fringe theatre and the general state of affairs since 2006, accumulating a huge fan......

You could be forgiven for not giving a fig about how the candidates for the London mayoral elections in 2008 are shaping up. Londonist, however, does. On the left, the Greens were first off the block in March with the selection of anti-4x4 campaigner Sian Berry, followed by Respect (remember them?) in April with Lindsey German, who stood last time on behalf of Team Galloway. For the far right, the British National Party have selected......

The National Archives might be shut today (for maypole dancing or demonstrating - we just don’t know) but they’re amusing us all through the release of correspondence between Buckingham Palace and the Home Office from 1947 about affairs of grave, national importance. Wedding tat, to be exact. That pivotal moment in history when the good old, tacky ‘n’ tasteless, cheap and cheerful royal wedding souvenir trade emerged straying mutinously far from the acceptable tradition......

Listening to the radio on St. George's Day (last Monday in case you missed it) we heard various proposals for a national anthem for England, something that could be sung at Twickenham to counter the emotion of "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" or played at the unveiling of a putative English Parliament. This set us wondering if, given the prominence of London in international affairs and the prospect of the 2012 Olympics in particular, our......

We thought we’d take a break from linking up Onionbagblog, and instead sample a scallion of a different persuasion. Olly’s Onions serves up small helpings of news in a satirical sauce. A bit like The Onion, then. (What is this connection between bulbous edibles and current affairs piss-takes?) This week, Olly drops by a trendy boozer: The White Swan just off Ladbroke Grove has been serving a loyal clientele for decades, but since it......

The chaps behind 'We're going to need a bigger boat' - Highgate's popular monthly film quiz - are back with a new gig. 'See Me After School' will fact you till you fart about all manner of intra- and extra-curricular activities. Each part is divided into a number of rounds, each with a different topic. Most of these mirror your normal school subjects, such as Science, Music, Geography, History, Art, English... but there are......

With the arrival of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have been quick to question suspects. Some bipedal-warm-blooded-oviparous-vertebrate rights lawyers have said the interrogation techniques are Draconian and tantermount to torture. A spokesperson for the department cried 'no fowl' and said if they got nuthin' to hide they got nuthin' to worry about.......

oh dear. Tony Blair has been interviewed for a second time by police investigating cash-for-honours allegations. Downing Street disclosed that the 45 minute questioning took place in Number 10 last Friday, but was kept secret at the request of the Metropolitan Police. What happens if Levy turns rat? Will the whole thing end badly in an Infernal Affairs / The Departed inspired series of head wounds and elevator doors? Could it be that Blair......

Nothing much on the old London terrorist radar today so let's have a quick gander at the rest of the country. Oh look, they've arrested nine people in Birmingham: The "significant" operation involved police and the security service MI5. Security sources said a terror plot not aimed at mass casualties would mark "a different approach" to UK terrorism. Crap, we don't like the sound of that. It's a little too much like when the......

Blair is having a time of it. Following on from a little unwanted attention by the police it turns out the one person in the world that he wants to be noticed by doesn't really care: Tony Blair has failed to influence the policies of George Bush's White House in any significant way, despite his unwavering support for the US president, a leading foreign affairs think tank said today. Delivering its verdict on ten......

Last week we went out to watch a man from Beirut with colourful trousers and big hair, sing songs about fat girls, gay affairs, and lollipops. Tonight, we think you should do the same. Mika was born in the middle of a warzone in 1983 (yes, we realise that makes him disgustingly young), moved to Paris and spent most of his youth in London. What you need to know is that he's Universal Records......

The government's plans to bring in high tech ID cards may have to go back to the drawing board after a Guardian investigation showed that biometric data could be electronically attacked and cloned with a £174 microchip reader. We say may have to back to the drawing board because so far the only response to the investigation has been a shrug of the governmental shoulders. Opposition parties have been quick to point out the......

For four nights only, starting from tonight, the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn is presenting a series of short plays exploring the current situation in Darfur. How Long Is Never? Darfur - a Response features new work by Michael Bhim, Amy Evans, Jennifer Farmer, Carlo Gebler, Juliet Gilkes, Lynn Nottage, Winsome Pinnock. All seven are writers from the Tricycle Bloomberg Writers Group and each have a short play in this special event; each piece is......

The Royal Thai restaurant on Caledonian Road. Decent, unassuming Asian cuisine at a reasonable price. Our one quibble...not the most veggie-friendly of places, judging from item 54. It might also explain how Tom Yum soup gets its name. *With apologies to the three-quarters of our readership, who are either too young or too American to remember the redoubtable Ms Rantzen, champion of consumer affairs and mildly amusing typos.......

This week - Scorsese remakes Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs (The Departed) and conjoined twins become a punk band, (Brothers of the Head) First up, The Departed by director Martin Scorsese. If you're the kind of person who believes the proclaimations of a certain man salaried by the Guardian, Mr. Peter Bradshaw (and we are), it looks as if this might be the film to see this week. He has not a bad word......

You have to question the reasoning behind TfL's naming a form of electronic ticketing after a tasty sea-faring creature which is not only mistakenly employed as an aphrodisiac, but can also do amazing tricks with mucus secretions and dirt. Someone pointed out to Londonist recently that the whole idea behind Oyster was ripped-off from Hong Kong anyway, where they have been using Octopus cards since the mid-1990s. (Didn't London used to dictate what Hong......

A surprising headline, to be sure, but we shouldn’t be that shocked. After all, he was first considered for the job six years ago. Then he was said to be unhappy with administrators overseeing team affairs, but now Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri, Dunga to his friends, captain of Brazil’s 1994 world cup winning side and member of the Queens Park Rangers board since Gianni Paladini’s arrival as majority shareholder in 2004, has succumbed to......

This week, we have a film about Irish Republicanism (The Wind That Shakes The Barley), a nonsensical thriller with Demi Moore (Half Light) and a movie about true-life legend of patriot fighter-hero, Huo Yuanjia (Fearless). First up, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, a film that won director Ken Loach the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival. As discussed at the end of last week's Friday Film News, there has been a......

Great local news headline in the Hillingdon Times: 'Bollywood Reservoir Dogs' to be filmed in Harrow "Counterfeit", set in London's criminal underworld, will, according to its makers, be an Asian film to rival western crime movies such as Reservoir Dogs... Sounds cool. Who have we got to rival Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Steve Buscemi in the acting stakes then? It will star Stephen Rahman-Hughes. Who? the star of West End musical Bollywood Dreams......

Charles Holden (1875-1960) is a man with two careers. On the one hand, he gave us impressive Portland stone giants like the Senate House and 55 Broadway – two of London’s tallest buildings in their day. But the same chap also masterminded the design of 20 or so tube stations – those elegant brown brick affairs best seen on the northern stretch of the Piccadilly Line. These in particular show off Holden’s principles of......

Remember the trailer for Hellgate: London that we treated you to back in March? Well there's a comic book version on the way to fill in some of the background on the mayhem: The comic book provides the background story behind HELLGATE: LONDON. Issue “0” begins when MI5 service agent Lyra Darius discovers a human charnel house in London whilst investigating the affairs of recently resigned Home Office Minister, Lord Sumerisle. Soon afterwards, Lyra......

The Independent has a small preview of the East End Film Festival which starts tomorrow: The festival opens with Richard E Grant, director-in-residence, introducing his own directorial debut Wah-Wah - a family drama inspired by his experiences of growing up in the Sixties, starring Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson and Julie Walters. Other highlights include the Palme d'Or-nominated Election, a Hong Kong Triad thriller starring Tony Leung; It's Nice up North, in which the comedian......

If you had to be infested which would you choose, rats or mice? Your first instinct may be towards mice, they're just not as nasty as rats are they, they're just somehow...cuter. Well you better forget that namby pamby attitude right away because an infestation is a nuisance not a 'big happy rodent party' and sooner or later the killing will have to begin. And when that happens the only thing you'll be interested......

It's been a good week for pissing off the neighbours. Firstly it was a couple of ickle pussy cats in Camberwell, now it's the thought of thousands of James Blunt fans roaming endlessly across London's green and pleasant spaces, high on spritzers and Sainsburys' bacon crunchies. Let's face it, London isn't Worthy Farm, probably looked a bit like it once, but isn't likely to do so again (unless TMFB has his way). So if......

Secret Loans To Be Banned The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, has outlined plans to ban secret loans to political parties, after the Labour Party has become embroiled in accusations of sleaze, as rich businessmen who have loaned the party money have been offered peerages. The row over how parties should be funded has re-opened, with the Tories saying that the number of M.P.s should be cut to raise funds for state funding of parties,......

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......

Falconer Rejects English Parliament The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, has rejected the idea of an English parliament to run alongside Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish equivalents. He also rebuffed the idea of a solution to the much-discussed West Lothian Question (the fact that Scottish, Northern Irish, and Welsh M.P.s have a say in purely English affairs, whereas English M.P.s have no say in matters that just affect the other nations. On the Today Programme,......

Not content with being an MP, everyone's favourite cat impressioner George Galloway has today announced he's turning his hand to the art of a radio talkshow host. Now we know he likes talking, but is giving him a microphone really necessary? Dear ol' George will be presenting a current affairs phone in on Talk Sport. He won't be restricting himself to politics though and says that he intends to make the show the most......

Well, here we go again. The release of another instalment of video game ‘The Getaway’ has been announced by Sony. And this time, it’s portable The Getaway: Gangs of London is to be launched later this year on the PSP format. Flawed but fun, the earlier PS2 titles offered excellent opportunities for London-based mayhem. Forget about the creaky storyline. We’d make up our own missions, like ‘You must steal the tank, and shell your......