Sir Ian Blair may be on his way out, but one of the issues that defined his tenure as the Met's top cop rumbles on. An inquiry into institutional racism within the Metropolitan police has been ordered by the Mayor, following an campaign by the Black Police Association to ward potential recruits from joining a "hostile and racist environment". Removing the stigma of racism within the Force was a signature Blair goal, one that......

The last Metropolitan police commissioner to resign, James Munro, did so in 1890 after failing to apprehend Jack the Ripper. Sir Ian Blair's departure may not be the result of so egregious an oversight, yet the reasons behind it have inspired much debate on Fleet Street. The Times is in no doubt that Mr Blair's resignation is the result of a "Tory coup" engineered by the Mayor. The Guardian agrees, and even has Boris......

Well, causes minor political infighting and gets hyperbolically labelled "librarygate". Whilst other boroughs are sexing up their libraries, Lambeth stands accused of inventing temporary book lending services in order to tick Audit Commission boxes on accessibility. Such creative machinations apparently intended to secure Lambeth Council's crown as "most improved local authority" in the period up to 31 March this year by hanging on to the measly one star their cultural services previously earned. Councillors......

As the top Tory in the country, it was no surprise that Boris' triumphant Tory conference speech would be received rapturously. Beginning with an amusing barb at previous nemesis Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Mayor rounded off his speech with crowd-pleasing promises on council tax and city academies. While David Cameron was seen enjoying Boris' commanding performance, a hint of tension exists between the two, alluded to by Cameron's apparent backtrack over his 'broken' society theme. Could......

If only Londonist had a political crystal ball. We've done a quick-and-dirty analysis of this weekend's disquiet on the Labour benches with Gordon Brown/the direction of the Labour party/the lack of an open debate about leadership/whatever-you-want-to-call-the-current-media-bun-fight, and it seems to us that the revolt is being led by MPs who are a) from London; and b) women. So, first off, we had Siobhain McDonagh (MP for Mitcham and Morden) lose her government whip's job......

As if he didn't have enough on his plate with the economy and a pummelling in the polls, a major oil summit planned for December is proving a headache for Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he wrangles over just whom to invite. The guest list for a gathering of OPEC states and other oil giants would tax even the most gifted of party planners, requiring as it does a pow-wow including some of the......

Lembit Opik, professional HAB* to one Cheeky buttock and occasional MP for Montgomeryshire, has staged a protest highlighting the roadworthiness of the seldom seen Segway. Mr Opik and his partners in crime, Tory peers Lord Atlee and the Earl of Liverpool, are riding a Segway up and down the Houses of Parliament, in a flagrant breach of the law which states that the scooter may not be piloted on highways or pavements. The trio......

How envious our former Mayor must be when it comes to Venezuelan politics and the power that his erstwhile chum and budding autocrat Hugo Chavez wields. Pesky media criticising your government and daring to oppose you? Close them down. Irritating elections every four years? Heck, just eliminate your term limit. ¿Es facil, no? Ken's love affair with the Bolivarian Revolution reached its zenith when he struck a deal that saw impoverished developing world Venezuela......

Jem Finer's thousand-year musical composition Longplayer is now well into its first decade, and we still like to throw it out there as our favourite song just to trump everyone. What other single piece of music can we really, truly call the soundtrack of our lives? Apparently we're not the only ones still haunted by the transhuman span of its millennial strains. The stewards of the project, Artangel, are now making an annual event......

During the Mayoral election, one of the slurs regularly trotted out against Boris Johnson was his lack of tact when it came to race relations. In particular, his description of black people as "picaninnies" was offered by opponents as evidence of his unsuitability to rule over a multi-ethnic metropolis such as London. Nearly 100 days into his reign, not only has the new mayor failed to destroy the city as many predicted, he's surprised......

This is the damning conclusion of an audit into the London Development Agency under Ken Livingstone. During his eight years in power, millions were squandered on pet projects, approved without appropriate checks and balances, says the report, which was authored by Patience Wheatcroft at the behest of her long-time pal and occasional back-scratcher Boris Johnson. Contentious projects, like a world-class aquarium in the Silvertown Quays complex, were given Ken's glad-hand and pushed ahead despite......

The all-new, caring, sharing, environmentally sound Tory party wants us to live with the same spirit as their very own bumptious leader, all biking to work and wind turbines and eco-harmony. To that end they've announced households could be paid for recycling their rubbish under a Conservative government. Rightfully castigating Labour's predictably stentorian plan to fine non-recyclers, the Tories have been inspired by a US scheme in which households are paid $50 a month......

Nelson Mandela arrived in London yesterday in anticipation of his 90th birthday concert that takes place in Hyde Park this weekend. The former South African president is a frequent visitor to these parts: just last year he unveiled his statue in Parliament Square, and he has long recognised London's contribution to the overthrow of apartheid in his native country. Mandela probably wants little more than to relax, but for such a statesman, politics are......

Wethinks the Livingstone doth protest too much. Our former mayor is upset at the suggestion, made by Boris Johnson, that Ken kept a secret stash of liquor with which to get merry with the wives of Windsor and who knows whom else. A comedy of errors it may be (that's enough poor Shakespeare references. Eds.), but Boris claims that, when he first moved into the Thameside offices, he discovered a secret fridge stocked with......

Turns out Gordon Brown had bigger things to worry about than that silly waxwork distraction of a few weeks ago, where an online poll of Tussauds fans gave the PM a big clunking thumbs down. Yet it must be galling to see other world leaders slip through the entranceway, like a better-tailored rival granted admittance to a trendy nightclub while you're standing outside fuming and fussing. Brown's Gallic counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, is the latest......

The Crewe by-election looks like it just might be a bit of a watershed for the Conservatives. It's the first time the Tories have won a by-election in a Labour-held seat since 1978 - 30 years ago. If David Cameron becomes PM, will everyone look back at this moment as the point where he really began to take control? Anyway, Crewe is miles away - why should London care? Well, for one thing the......

The Gordon Brown statue saga has intrigued psephologists and, er, wax-ologists for months now: would our embattled PM be given his own waxwork at Madame Tussauds, or have the curators bargained that, with the odds of his removal ever-shortening, the task of crafting those craggy features into a lifelike visage isn't worth the effort? As we reported earlier this month, Tussauds turned the decision over to a public vote. The results are in: nearly......

Today, Boris Johnson's New York counterpart, Michael Bloomberg, is coming to town. The pair will exchange tips about the challenges of running effectively the two most important cities on Earth, and they'll be chinwagging about the pros and cons of their relative roles. According to the Beeb, Boris will be envious of the hefty £30bn budget his doppelgänger controls, while Bloomberg will eye the meager legislative red tape that allows schemes like the congestion......

Our lonely PM's glowering grimace doesn't lend itself easily to sympathy, but it would take a heart as hard as granite (or Granita, even) not to feel for Gordon Brown's plight. Having spent ten years waiting for the top job, in just ten months of Brownism Labour finds itself rudderless, mauled in the local elections and turfed out of City Hall. Yesterday was Brown's first appearance in Parliament since last week's calamities, and he......

Orhan* snaps Boris at the Sikh New Year festival of Vaisakhi in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, nicking a policeman's hat As our new Mayor cycles to work, meets the team and starts taking action on annoying alcohol related transport policies, we took a poke about the London blogosphere to see how the dust is settling. London transport guru, Annie Mole, was decidedly cross on election evening, seeing Boris was onto a winner given, "Whatever you......

So what are the weary vote-chasers' final offers? Ken Livingstone has been in Vauxhall launching a poster campaign advising Londoners to imagine Boris Johnson in charge of a £39 billion public transport improvement programme. It's punchline? "Suddenly, he's no joke." Then he launched his manifesto for women and ignored another YouGov poll while his office responded tartly to a hit and run attack by TravelWatch chairman Brian Cooke. Apparently, Brian wasn't keen on the Freedom......

One of the few things we can be sure of about the mayoral race is that Boris and Ken in particular are knackered. But with just three full campaigning days remaining they must now run harder than ever. If the opinion polls are telling us anything, it is that neither can be certain which of them will win and that every single vote–first or second preference–is precious to them. Livingstone’s strategy between now and......

OK, this Londonvidium lark is supposed to be a weekend feature. But this is so hilarious we just couldn't wait. A very clever bit of video editing courtesy of London Shite.......

Has the final wheel come off Boris Johnson’s 'New Routemaster' policy? The good thing about it was that it came with a promise to restore conductors to the routes currently served by the bendy buses Johnson wants to replace: a bus with a conductor is a friendlier bus, a friendlier bus is a safer bus and so on. Problem is, Johnson has no grip on the economics of the plan, even weeks after he first......

The tense stalemate following last month's election in Zimbabwe spilled over into the streets of London yesterday. Frustrated by the insistence of Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party to hold a recount, activists from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - which claims their candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29th presidential election - stormed the Zimbabwean embassy on the Strand. Member's of the MDC-UK women's wing, led by Judith Ngwenya, snuck in after deviously (in......

Does anyone know who’s winning? On Monday, according to YouGov, it was Boris Johnson by a massive 13 points. But on Wednesday, according to Ipsos-MORI, it was Ken Livingstone by one, prompting The London Paper to dub him 'Comeback Ken'. So, is Ken coming back or is he a goner? Londonist is as baffled as everyone else but maybe the past week contained some clues about which way the tide is going. On Tuesday,......

Not only can blogging wage war on your health, but public figures are getting in trouble for their online opinions. The BNP’s Nick Eriksen learnt this the hard way last week, after he was sacked as the party's London Assembly candidate for publishing jaw-droppingly obtuse views on rape on his blog. The post has since been removed, but luckily journalists were quick to spot the following: "Rape is simply sex (I am talking about......

Update 17.20: The torch is now nearing the end of its journey, a bizarre spectacle that has seen minor celebrities rub shoulders with jogging police officers and cartoonish torch guardians in blue tracksuits. Dame Ellen McSailor is now shepherding the flame towards the O2, where a celebratory concert is planned (minus the laryngitic Sugababes). Update 14.45: The torch, approaching St Pauls, has been carried onto a London red bus by a man resembling Mr......

Having previously interviewed Sian Berry, the standard-bearer for the Greens now currently in a pact (electoral, not economic or suicide we assume) with Labour's Ken Livingstone, Londonist sent a set of common questions out to (most of) the other candidates in the May 1st mayoral election. First up is Gerard Batten, standing for the UK Independence Party, who doubles up as one of the capital's representatives in the European Parliament (the existential considerations of......

Muddled in the mind about who you're going to vote for in the upcoming Mayoral elections? The Vote Match website will help you out. You're asked to agree or disagree with 25 statements, and then indicate the issues that matter most to you. Vote Match compares your answers to those of the main candidates and presents you with a ranked list of who you might like to vote for. It has some inevitable holes -......