Disappointment of the day comes from London Councils who have withdrawn the ban the shopping bag Bill which received so much support from Londoners. Instead, they hope that the government's Climate Change Bill will have a bigger environmental impact, encouraging a voluntary reduction in plastic bag usage nationally, hitting retailers with charges, whereas London Council's Bill could only ever be about London. However, local action like that of Newington Green Action Group, which has......

Harrygate escalates: Prince pulled out of Afghanistan, whilst the media whip selves into frenzy over involvement in the news blackout/leak. Winegate averted (for now): Winehouse will not face charges in connection with husband’s alleged attempts to pervert justice. Guess which city is the world’s museum capital? We’ll give you three guesses; first two don’t count. A day after M&S announces it will charge for plastic bags, Gordon Brown indicates that the government is ready......

Having barely emerged from January’s wreckage of failed New Year’s resolutions, it was with a groan that we greeted the news that Lent arrives early this year. Questions of belief aside, Lent always seems likes such a promising self-improvement programme: give up chocolate, drink less, quit smoking. But didn’t we just make – and break – those same resolutions last month? We’re not such optimists to think we should try again so soon. Perhaps......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... It seems that everywhere we’ve gone recently, we’ve had the opportunity to buy environment-friendly souvenir and decorative tote bags. Gone are the days when......

What we learned this weekend whilst you were enjoying all the fun of the fair: Weird statistic of the week: Emmas from Sutton and Evas from Kingston should not be allowed behind the wheel. How on earth do they get these stats? Two arrests have been made following Saturday’s night bus murder. Londonist would so like to like night buses, but it is hard. Find out what north-of-the-borderers make of us. Mummy gets a......

Whilst we, the London punters, expressed overwhelming support for action on throw-away shopping bags last week the big high street retailers have been mewing at the London Assembly opposing an outright ban. Under DEFRA's new waste strategy the major UK supermarkets and other large retailers are committed to reducing the environment impact of carrier bags by 25% by 2008. Whatever that means. But they're reluctant to back a ban as it diminishes choice and......

When they're not being re-imagined as metaphorical objects in overrated films, plastic bags are unsightly things. A familiar bane of London's landscape, the "urban tumbleweed" is an ecological nightmare. We all know that we're supposed to ditch them in favour of reusables; yet 13 billion bags are issued each year in the UK alone. That's 220 per person. Only one in 200 bags is recycled, while the rest are doomed to landfill sites where......

Modbury in Devon was the little trailblazer and now all 33 Boroughs have got together to ask us the big question: should the plastic shopping bag be banned in London? The stats are pretty shocking. We really do take placcy bags for granted. Over 13 billion bags are issued to shoppers each year which works out at at least 220 per person in the UK although, it actually feels a lot more to us. Unfortunately,......

Mark Watson is a comedian. You may have seen him on the box on 'Nevermind the Buzzcocks', 'Mock The Week' or 'Time Trumpet'. You may have heard his Radio 4 show, 'Mark Watson makes the world substantially better'. You may have seen him live, perhaps on his current tour of his show 'I'm worried that I'm starting to hate almost everyone in the world' or perhaps you attended or have heard of his legendary......

If our coverage of the latest terror-alertage has seemed a little light the reasons are two-fold. 1) We got the nod from Downing Street early last week that this would be a good time to get out of the country so a small percentage of Londonists missed all the kafuffle by braving the dangerous skies just prior to the balloon going up or by relaxing on Eurostar with more hand luggage, reading material and......

As regular readers of Londonist will know we're big fans of local newspapers and their coverage of the obscure and the exquisitely dull. But today we stumbled across this article from the Epsom Guardian which manages to encapsulate so beautifully every element of bad local journalism (and therefore everything that we love about it) that we initially thought it had to be a wind-up. Kevin Barnes' article is headlined One man and his dog:......

At about 4pm on Thursday a Hercules must have flown over Camden and deposited its cargo of 70s and 80s thrift store, retro chic on to the assembled throng below. It was followed by the resounding rumble of the legacies of the Clash; the Specials and Joy Division, at first drifting and then powering from the entrance to G-Lounge. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2006 Camden Crawl is upon us, reeling from last year's success:......

Ways to show we are not intimidated or scared by the London bombings #2756-190: by carrying all our stuff in specially designed clear plastic bags. The Freedom Bag purports to be an ideal tool to combat terror as it will allow the common tube traveller to prove that he/she is no threat. By allowing fellow travellers and the police to see exactly what you're carrying, you're easing their worries and giving them the impression......