Move over Queenie. The Mayor has his own seasonal message. As you might imagine, it’s all good news. London is now the business capital of the world. Two million extra passengers a day are carried on the buses than in the 1990s. Crossrail funding is secured. Cycling has doubled. We’re chairing the C40 group of cities fighting climate change. And so on and so on. Although he begins by saying that 2008 will be......

Ken's been coming under the cosh for his fact-finding trip to Delhi last month. The mayor and his long-time nemesis, Tory councillor Brian Coleman, have been flapping barbs at eachother in the London Assembly, with the Barnet bruiser landing a number of heavy blows on Livingstone, accusing him of taking a "larger entourage than the Queen". He went on to question whether Ken's fellow visitors Myleene Klass and a group of dancers from the......

The Mayor of London wants you to stay up late. Stay up late for the Lates October season. He wanted you to cut back on sleep and catch up on culture back in May when the first Lates season was launched, now it's October, he wants you to check out the things you miss during the day in the big museums and galleries. Have you been meaning to see something at any of the......

Yesterday's penis-hacker-offer has had the old boy reattached! Hooray! The inquest into Diana's death has gone tits up Locals have stopped plans to remodel Sloane Square The Mayor has been on Arab TV asking the Palestinians to give Alan Johnson back. They will surely listen to Ken. Image courtesy of Mondoagogo via the Londonist flickr group.......

Colindale shopping centre, "Oriental City", has become the nexus of an international dispute. The beloved Edgeware Road mall, which has been called London's "real Chinatown", may be knocked down later this year and replaced with a B&Q home improvement superstore, some flats, a school, and a bunch of other crap. The Chinese consul general, Jiang Yuansong, has written to Mayor of London Ken Livingstone to express his "deep concern" about the project. If the......

The London commemoration of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade is on shaky ground after an argument over who should pay for it: The Mayor of London included £200,000 in his draft budget for this financial year to commemorate the event. But Assembly member Angie Bray said the £275,000 earmarked for the occasion should be cut because it would be better paid for by central government. Mr Livingstone said an attempt......

Ken's in the sights of The Standard again - this time for hanging out with terrorists: The Mayor met the wives of the so-called “Miami Five”, who have been found guilty by a US court of conspiracy to spy on American military bases. Details only emerged after he was forced to publish his full itinerary under freedom of information laws, having previously said the publicly funded trip was to build Olympics links and visit......

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes" Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that......

Ken's in Cuba! The Mayor made an unexpected visit there to talk about environmental changes (environmental changes like 'oooh it's getting cold isn't it, anyone fancy a trip to Cuba?). One of the men detained at Guantanamo (a 38-year-old Jordanian with British residency) has been granted permission to phone his wife in London. The US papers are going crazy for Aardman's 'Flushed' and it's ' hilarious parallel London down the loo'. Mayor Bloomberg of......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......

We just got the following press release: People’s Question Time-Londoners’ opportunity to question the Mayor and the London Assembly The Mayor of London and the London Assembly are inviting Londoners to come to Hendon Police College on Wednesday 23 November at 7pm, to take part in People’s Question Time. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: 'People’s Question Time is an opportunity for Londoners to raise their concerns about life in the capital. Since the last......

This Sunday, India's glammest festival: Diwali will be celebrated in Trafalgar Square. Diwali is celebrated on a grand scale in almost all the regions of India. Designed to celebrate the victory of good over evil, and "the glory of light over darkness", the word Diwali itself means ‘a row of lamps’ and traditionally homes are lit with the glow of small earthen lamps to welcome Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. In Trafalgar......

Just got back from the press launch of the 49th London Film Festival and it looks like there's even more on offer this year than ever. Amanda Nevill, the director of the British Film Institute (which last year alone screened an astonishing 3000+ films in the UK) kicked things off with a promise that she was "hell bent on bringing you one of the best festivals of world cinema" - no idle threat judging......

As we all know, a terrorist attack on London is "inevitable", which probably means we should be prepared for it. Thank the Lord then for London Resilience. They may sound like a vigilante guerilla group but they are actually the "strategic partnership that is working to ensure London is prepared for major incidents or catastrophes". The group have recently published their Emergency Plan (PDF document) for the city in case of attack, and it......