Of the anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 people who apply for asylum in the UK each year, Amnesty International estimates that approximately two-thirds are turned away. Once rejected, applicants are given 21 days to leave the country, at which point those without children are cut off from financial support and accommodation provided by the National Asylum Support Service. Many, for reasons as complex as those that brought them to the UK in the first......

Remember when indie bands had a want to succeed? A desire to achieve? Not many bands have it in this corporate day and age, towing the line, saying what they’re told (yes, Scouting For Girls, we’re looking at you), however one band seems like they may just be able to break the mainstream, and still have the desire to achieve massive things. Their name? Parka. This Glasgow via London quintet played the “Bollocks to Poverty”......

It’s the week before Christmas, and like us, you’re probably panicking because you’ve still got loads of shopping to do. If you have a spare night when you’re not out at wild and crazy office Christmas parties or fighting the crowds on Oxford Street, here are a few suggestions to keep you entertained. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 17 December Dispatches: How Safe Are Your Christmas Toys? (Channel 4, 21:00-22:00) If you’re Christmas shopping......

Welcome bach, David Juritz. This classical musician can add another string to his already well-tuned bow – as an ace fund-raiser. He has spent the last 4½ months fiddling his way around the world, not only to cover the costs of his 50 city, 24 country tour, but also to raise an impressive £24,000.00 for is charity, Musequality, which helps finance music education for children in poverty-stricken Columbia and aids-stricken Uganda. It has been shown......

A slap on the wrist for Londonist - we're three days late in previewing this year's Oxjam music festival, and we haven't even got a "dog ate our homework" excuse to cover our blushes. Must try harder next time. So what is Oxjam? It's only the most fun you're ever likely to have raising money for charity. Throughout October, thousands of budding Michael Eavis's are promoting gigs and club nights across the country. Working......

The Telegraph talks about our foreign rich people and how they'd look on Booth's poverty map. Including this wanted Russian oligarch. The London Eye - who would now dare pull it down? Memorial service marks 10th anniversary of the death of The People's Princess. Gawd rest her soul. Flickr image from Malias' photostream.......

The Proms are a marvellous institution. Remarkably diverse musically, accessible, world class and - crucially - cheap as chips, they are the soundtrack to summer in London and we are privileged to have them on our doorstep. It was with an eager step that we hied ourselves to the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday afternoon for the sold-out 48th Prom, despite the glowering sky and hint of rain in the air. Arriving at around......

As previously reported, staff at one of our favourite London cinemas, the Ritzy in Brixton, held their second planned one-day strike today. This dispute continues to leave a sour taste in the mouth. London's 'living minimum' wage is £7.20 per hour, but the cinema chain that runs the Ritzy, City Screen, wants to pay some staff as little £5.41 - 6p above the national legal minimum. City Screen justifies this poverty pay on the......

Ever had a tough day at the office and really felt like dressing up as your favourite super hero? Hasn’t everybody? Well now you can! And all to raise money for Oxfam! On Thursday May 31st, get yourselves down to 93 Feet East for the biggest cape wearing event of London’s social calendar. Not only will you be able to whoosh! around the room like Superman, you’ll get to hear some of the finest......

Two arrests have been made following the Elephant & Castle shooting we told you about yesterday. The Olympics will 'eliminate child povery' according to Gordon Brown and Ken Livingstone. Thames Water has been sold for £8bn to Australian banking group Macquarie. Let's hope they can make some quick improvements. In case you hadn't noticed Madonna's new son has arrived in London. Looks like Will Young will be taking the part of Fiyero in the......

You know we can't resist something that a Conservative dismisses as a "socialist propaganda fest". That's the attitude of Angie Bray (leader of London's Tories - one of the ones with the cute little caps aboard the Death Star) at the news that those two red menaces Ken and Chávez have a scheme to flood London with black gold: an extraordinary deal struck with London's mayor, Ken Livingstone, that would see Caracas benefit from......

This week - A 14 year old James Bond, (Stormbreaker), Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn break up, (The Break-Up) and Garfield comes to the UK and finds himself in charge of a castle, (Garfield 2 ) First up, Stormbreaker. Peter Bradshaw gives it 3/5, dubbing it an "entertaining teen Bond fantasy" and writing "what's not to enjoy?" This is the sort of summer film that doesn't go for subtleties. According to James Christopher in......

Child poverty? Check. Melting icecaps? Check. Britney Spears and her “relentless fertility” ? Perhaps the issue doesn’t quite have the far-reaching consquences, but it has made its way to the top of Madame Tussaud’s agenda. The waxworks museum’s New York branch has launched a campaign to get Britney back on track, claiming: "We want to save Britney from herself, from her husband and from her relentless fertility." So let’s break this down for a......

Or at least it used to be, according to Charles Booth’s famous poverty maps from the end of the Victorian era. His maps show the haves and have-nots in glorious Technicolor; yellow for ‘Upper-middle and Upper classes. Wealthy’; black for ‘Lowest class. Vicious, semi-criminal’. The Charles Booth Online Archive have recently made the maps available online. Helpfully, the site displays a modern map alongside the Booth original, so it’s easy to see which bit......

We found this cryptic remark lying askew amongst the limited foliage of Bishops Square. That’s the recently opened public space and office/retail complex near Liverpool Street Station, which has attracted a particularly bohemian class of nimby. As you’re probably aware, the site nestles right up against the tatty but historic buildings of Spitalfields Market, parts of which were demolished to make way for the wider scheme. The insipid, great-glass blocks are more of a......

Sorry we're late. We got held up on the Tube (one of our servers went down). 41% of all children in London are living in poverty. To try and combat this Ken Livingstone and the Association of London Government have today launched The London Child Poverty Commission. American officials at Guantanamo Bay claim that 'dozens' of the detainees there had contact with the terrorist cells responsible for the July 7 bombings. The Tower of London's......

Two strikes, several picket lines and a 7 month campaign later, the House of Commons cleaners have secured a pay rise and new rights for themselves. Strikes were held before and after last year's summer recess by the cleaners who were being paid below the accepted £6.70 "living wage" for London and were working 11 hour shifts for £5.00 an hour (in some cases, less than that) without sick pay, without pensions and only......

Well, they did vote him in last May, after all. Yes, as every Londoner knows, the eleventh and most shocking entrant into the Celebrity Big Brother house is "Gorgeous" George Galloway, cigar-chomping scourge of the right, New Labour, journalists, Christopher Hitchens, and anyone who doesn't agree with him. TV Troll was so surprised when the camera panned up to show his smug turnip head, we almost fell off the sofa. The thought of Galloway......

Oh, top marks, Inwood. A new tome about the capital that (a) doesn’t have London in the title and (b) bears no sign of a foreword by Ackroyd/Sinclair. Something of a novelty. Inwood has tackled the capital before. His masterful 2000 work ‘A History of London’ was largely and sadly overlooked, thanks to the ill-fortune of publishing in the same year as Peter Ackroyd’s more sexy Biography. City of Cities covers the 30 years......

Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré London has been home to more double-acts than Great Yarmouth pier. Just off the top of the head, there’s Johnson & Boswell, the Adam Brothers, Holmes and Watson, the Krays, and recent North-London comedy duo Henry and Pires. Add to the mix the little-known Victorian pairing of Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, whose minor classic ‘London A Pilgrimage’ has just been re-released by Anthem Press. Londonist has wanted to......

EMERGENCY HOTLINE: 0870 1566 344 Some useful links: Guardian News Blog. Very useful Wikipedia page. Transport for London. Breaking News: the entire tube network is down and all stations are being evacuated because of reported 'power surges' at various places on the system. Explosions have been reported at Edgware Road and Aldgate and there are reports of 'walking wounded' and commuters smashing windows of trains with 'their umbrellas' to get out. There is at least......

Londonist regrets not writing up a post several weeks ago about the City of London Festival which is happening right now. They've managed to squeeze a rather amazing variety of events into the three weeks of the festival, and the idea of putting on performances of exciting, weird music in exciting, weird architectural spaces is one that needs to be imitated more. We were particular excited about Joby Talbot's new music-theatre piece performed in......

Ok, so you've had time to digest all the messages behind Saturday's Live 8 concert, you've signed up to support Make Poverty History and you may even be on your way up to Edinburgh tomorrow. So isn't it about time the national media started printing some fluffy, meaningless celebrity-centered stories to give our poor brains a rest? And the question everyone's asking about Live 8 is: what the hell was going on with Pete......

One news item we sadly didn't catch early enough today was this release from Transport for London regarding Busk8. If you were around Canary Wharf station today between 10 and 12 you may have seen the mini-festival attended by the likes of "dynamic busking duo" Sally and Johnny who played in order to donate all the proceeds to the Make Poverty History campaign. A great idea we think you'll agree, but what's really ineresting......

Superman had it all wrong: you don't need x-ray vision and the ability to fly in order to save the world. All it takes these days is a wristband and a pair of pants. This weekend, as the Live 8 concert kicks off in Hyde Park a small group of businessmen will wander through central London looking for people dressed as superheroes. No, they're not a vigilante group intent on destroying Fathers4Justice, they're simply......

On 21st June, the ratcheted-rental-threatened London Eye shames its greedy landlords (the South Bank Centre) by hosting a special event to raise awareness of Third World Debt and its attendant trade issues. Flight 5065 aims to promote Cafedirect's Fairtrade range and to raise awareness of the issues prior to the G8 conference, which takes place 6th-8th July and has the African economy on its agenda for discussion. Make Poverty History is one of the......

Well one free gig but we're pretty damn excited about this one. On Wednesday 4th May, the HMV on Oxford Street - that's the big one between Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road for the argumentative amongst you - is going to be hosting a launch event for the MOJO Honours List. Now you'll need to be getting up very early because tickets are limited to one pair per person and all 250 will......