Last month the Londonist brought you the news that the British Fashion Council (BFC) had decided not implement a recommendation from the independent Model Health Inquiry to issue models with a health certificate to verify that their body mass index (BMI) is healthy. This would have meant that models with a very low BMI, which signifies an increased risk of eating disorders, would be banned from working at London Fashion Week. The BFC's refusal......

All I do each night is pray...hoping that I'll be electable again some day. The highlight of the mayoral election week came at the Evening Standard’s Influentials Debate at the RSA on Monday, when Ken Livingstone told LBC breakfast host Nick Ferrari why he doesn’t drive. He revealed that he’d tried cars when a young man because he’d thought it would help him to get girls, but in the end had decided to “concentrate on......

Ken hits back at Porsche and tells them to get on their bikes. Or at least to produce some low-emission mean machines. The Osama bin London bunch are jailed. Laid back burglar saunters into Downing Street…and escapes without a custodial sentence. Lib Dem MP for Kingston causes a bit of a rumpus. TfL Mrs. Mops congratulated for Blackwall Tunnel quick fix. Well, it’s good to give our favourite Aunt Sally a positive spin for......

After receiving what they judiciously describe as "a lot" of feedback, TfL has announced significant changes to the recorded information announcements on London buses. Those changes mainly seem to involve - hooray! - reducing their frequency. The announcements, rolled out last year in conjunction with a display system, are designed to help visually impaired travellers, as well as visitors, navigate the confusing streets of London. A worthy project, certainly, though it means less hilarious......

The sixth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory), Sian Berry (Green), Fiyaz Mughal (Lib Dem). Chris Prior is an independent mayoral candidate standing on a very firm 'Stop Congestion Charging' ticket. We asked him why, and, as with all the other candidates, we also enquired whether he'd ever been sick on the Tube. Chris is the......

The fourth in our series of interviews with potential candidates for next year's Mayoral election. Previously: Victoria Borwick (Tory), Andrew Boff (Tory) and Warwick Lightfoot (Tory). Sian Berry is the Green's candidate for next year's elections. Unlike the Tory rivals we've previously interviewed, she is a strong supporter of the congestion charge. She's the only person we've ever known to use the words 'The North London Line is good'. And she's also got a......

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's often easy to forget the Liberal Democrats these days, despite the opportunity to write alliterative headlines like that. In the last few days, it must be hard to try to top a new Labour Prime Minister swanning off for a ride in George Bush's motorised buggy, or his Conservative rival escaping the floods to Rwanda, only to return to be dogged by criticism and demands for peerages. But as Boris and Ken start......

Red Ken is at it again. Usually so full of love for all things PC that you’d think he would change his name to Percy Clemmons, Ken’s latest ‘morally outraged’ hissy fit comes as somewhat of a surprise. “Ken Livingstone launched a vitriolic tirade against violent TV, films, gangsta rap and Margaret Thatcher yesterday - blaming them all for making Britain violent.” When is the last time you heard gangsta rap and Margaret Thatcher......

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......

The Environment Agency has announced that our beloved Thames Water was, last year, fined for pollution more than any other firm in England and Wales. Well done Thames Water! In case you were wondering, the exact amount was £128,000 over four different incidents, that's more than double any of the fines levied at its counterparts in the water industry. Two thirds of the pollution cases related to discharges of sewage to the Thames. Lib......

One of the reason that young people in Britain aren't interested in politics is this: Politicians make policies with old people in mind. It's true. The pensions whitepaper that came out today penalises young people, making them work until 68, whilst current elderly folks enjoy retirement at 65. Student top-up fees - there is a funding crisis in Briatin's universities, so who pays? The students, of course! Old people are serial voters, and serial......

Some Scottish M.P.s are finding a bitter taste in their mouths after pledging their support to England in the imminent World Cup. Widely believed to be the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown is undoubtedly a Scot through and through. Whilst Tony Blair hides his Scottishness well, Brown is proud of his heritage. He is a keen supporter of Raith Rovers FC in his constituency. But Brown, along with Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, have......

Poor Eric Forth. He died rather suddenly and tragically last week, which came as a great shock to his fellow M.P.s, to whom Forth was a well-liked and revered character. He was a parliamentarian to the core, making speeches without notes, and filibustering government legislation (whilst this can be seen to be purely obstructive, the way he did it was most erudite). Forth's colourful ties and waistcoats reflected his character. He will be sorely......

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,......

Blair Faces Education Vote The Government face the controversial vote on education today, with many Labour rebels standing firm. The Government plans to give schools more freedom over admissions and budgets. The Tories, as David Cameron was crowing about at PMQs today, support the Bill, whilst many Labour backbenchers don't, and it would be a huge blow to Blair's authority if the Bill is passed due to Tory support. It only needs 35 of......

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,......

Campbell Reveals Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet Lib Dem Leader Sir Menzies Campbell has today revealed his new Lib Dem shadow cabinet. 32-year old Sarah Teather (pictured) has been promoted to education spokesman, along with other bright young things getting the top posts. Maybe Sir Menzies, who is no spring chicken, is trying to temper his experience with youth. See the full Lib Dem shadow cabinet here. Sacked NHS Chief Exec Gets Peerage Tony Blair......

This day in London’s History 1985: Conservative MP Ivan Lawrence made the longest parliamentary speech of the 20th Century. The filibusting backbencher had the house hanging on his every word for 4 hours and 23 minutes, as he argued the case against fluoridating tap water. 1835: 150 years before this supreme act of word creation came the opposite: the complete destruction of a large number of words. On March 6, philosopher John Stuart Mill paid......

Londonist aims to give you a concise yet informative idea of the daily goings on at Westminster (and the rest of London's political sphere) with this, the Westminster Daily post. Speaker Martin has Heart Op The first big story so far this week is the absence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin. Mr. Martin was admitted to hospital in his native Glasgow during last week's parliamentary recess after suffering chest......

The Lib Dems clearly aren't damaged by the shambles that has been the deposition of Kennedy and the subsequent acandal-ridden leadership election. The results of yesterday's by-election in Dunfermline and West Fife - a neighbouring constituency to the Gordon Brown's. The Lib Dem candidate, Willie Rennie, received a gigantic 16% swing from Labour, and 9% from the Tories, turning an 11,562-strong Labour majority into a 1,800 Lib Dem majority. The results in full are......

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......

It seems that Londonist has found its true calling - as a slightly less scary version of Mystic Meg! Yesterday, we predicted that more scandals were sure to follow in the Lib Dem leadership contest, and we were right! Today, it has been revealed that Simon Hughes, yesterday the favourite to become the party leader, has come out as bi-sexual. Apparently, the Taxi-driving M.P. has had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships, and has made......

It seems that the Liberal Democrats can't go a week without a scandal. First, there were the original revelations about Charles Kennedy's drinking (quelle surprise?!) Then there was the admission of the party's Leader in the House of Lords, Lord McNally, that he too has battled with a drink problem. Now Mark Oaten steps into the frame, with the News of the World uncovering his visits to a male prostitute over a six-month period......

An eventful day at Westminster today, with many revelations. The first was that the Government has now decided to allow its backbenchers a free vote on the proposed ban on smoking in public places. The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has been under fire for some time from the Commons Health Committe, who are tabling an amendment to the Bill proposing a total ban, as opposed to the partial ban that her Government are proposing.......

You may have heard the rumours that Charles Kennedy is facing a coup d’etat within the Liberal Democrat party. Well, these rumours certainly got louder today. Lembit Öpik, the Lib Dems’ Wales and Northern Ireland spokesman, spoke to the press today denouncing those in the party who are plotting behind the scenes to unseat Kennedy as ‘cowardly.’ “What is questionable here is why go through the press and brief in what I think is......

Will the Routemaster debacle never die? After all the fuss over the decomissioning of the buses and then the arguments over whether bendy buses really did have quicker boarding times or not, now the Routmaster's new role is being criticised for being "seriously defective". The Routemaster 'heritage tours' which were due to start in December have become the target for the Lib Dem's who can't understand why the proposed routes miss out sights such......

Well I think enough of the Londonist staff have sufficiently recovered from last night to try and make a bit of sense of what actually happened in the capital. So here we go. Overall turnout was up 3% on 2001 with 58.2% of us bothering to get out there and vote. At a glance, we can see that Labour took 44 seats, Conservatives got 21, 8 went to the Lib Dem's, and 1 seat......

After yesterday's launch of the Tory manifesto, today is the Lib Dems' turn. (Read the PDF here.) Since the Conservative programme was more dog's dinner than dog whistle, does the party that promises "The Real Alternative" actually deliver it? After all, this is meant to be the Lib Dems' year; their mood is apparently as buoyant as it was in 1983. If they are a power in ascendant, then we should brush up on......

Face it, it's what London is missing. Ever since the dawn of the new millennium the capital city has been crying out for some sort of overblown countdown ceremony...thank God then for the Olympic bid. As it stands there are 75 days left until the International Olympic Committee decides who we will go to war with next who will host the next Olympics, so just to ensure that no one sleeps in that day......