Has Banksy now been unmasked once and for all? We doubt it. As Londonist predicted, there were tears before evensong yesterday as a gay bishop was heckled off pulpit. High river levels are threatening swan breeding activities. Alistair Darling clearly doesn’t know what to do with the economy as he has set up some help groups. Newington Green looks set to be the first plastic-bag-free zone in London. Picture from Jovike’s flickr stream under......

Credit crunch, you say? Bah, we're having none of it. Shops in the West End have punched above their weight so far this year: according to a new report from the British Retail Consortium, retail sales in London grew 10.5% in February, up from 3.8% in January, while footfall on the city's major shopping streets recorded a 4.3% year on year rise for March. All this in a climate where the national market is......

We've been ever so slightly bored by the anodyne coverage of today's Budget from the usual media sources. Luckily, Channel Five has done the decent thing and injected a bit of originality into proceedings. On today's 5pm and 7pm bulletins, Natasha Kaplinsky will be assisted by a 21 inch papier mache sculpture of the chancellor, Alistair Darling. Ham-based artist Anita Russell, a learning support assistant at Twickenham's Orleans Park School, sculpted the miniature minister......

- Start as you mean to go on: Seb Coe boasts that even our Olympic bid came in under budget and the 2012 Olympic tickets could be as low as £20 (although at this rate a tube fair to East London might be £30). - Northern Line: Alistair Darling tells Ken he can sack Alstom (who are increasingly being referred to as 'French firm Alstom', as if that explains everything). - 'Gangland arsenal of weapons'......

The redevelopment of Stansted airport has "slipped" and already accusations of blame have started flying about between the airlines and the developers. The redevelopment was supposed to ease the congestion currently suffered by Gatwick and Heathrow by doubling Stansted's traffic. Completion of a new runway was supposed to happen in 2011 but that's probably not going to happen now until 2013, and it could get worse unless some money is raised fast (i.e. by......

Lots of stuff in the press today about Alistair Darling's idea for a carpool lane on the M25. Apparently Darling got the idea after a visit to LA last year where "some drivers have gone to extraordinary lengths to take advantage of faster journey times on the lanes, including buying blow-up dolls and hiring children to sit beside them." The main criticism of the idea seems to be that the lanes won't reduce congestion......

Not really news, more like stating the bleeding obvious, but it needs to be news to Labour if they don't want to risk losing a large percentage of voters in the next election. At least that’s the interpretation of yet another recent survey by environmental pressure group Transport 2000, as 46% of daily commuters said they would switch votes at the next election to show their displeasure of late trains and over-crowding. In your standard......