The Met's stop and search webchat digested
This lunchtime Met Police Commander Tony Eastaugh held a live webchat answering questions on stop and search. As with Bernard Hogan-Howe’s Twitter debut before Christmas, the Met chose which questions to answer and there were no tricky follow ups. Here are some key exchanges.
01 Feb 2012
Mayor Johnson cuts council tax by £3.10. What will you buy?
Like a needy loner trying to make friends in a bar, Mayor Johnson has just bought everyone a pint. And he’s not going to shut up about it.
This morning he announced a 1% cut in his share of council tax. For a band D home, that works out at £3.10 less per year.
01 Feb 2012
London agenda for Wednesday 1 February
1. Look at an artist turn ‘extremely ordinary, and a little bit crap, objects into things that are more than a little extraordinary and insightful’ at David Shrigley – Brain Activity [Le Cool]
2. Watch something ‘contemporary, raunchy, political, funny, queer & straight, satirical, stupid, artistic, and sexy’ at Sleaze [Run Riot]
3. Watch Submarine for a fiver at The Water Poet [Don’t Panic]
4. Start celebrating LBGT History Month [Time Out]
5. Listen to David Lammy, MP and Runnymede Trust’s Rob Berkeley on A Tale of Tottenham: race, riots and the future [Ian Visits]
6. See Grayson Perry’s ‘The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman’ [Tired of London]
01 Feb 2012
31 Jan 2012
Thieves by Idles
The debut video from this Bristolian quintet. Idles channel the wirey, angular guitar pop of 2004, adding more than a hint of Foals’ intricate math-rock while simultaneously paying jerky, impassioned vocal respect to The Maccabees’ Orlando Weeks. They manage to do all this without sounding dated or in awe of their guitar+bass+drum toting peers. 2012 looks set to be an exciting year for Idles. Catch them at The Drop in Stoke Newington, February 25th.
31 Jan 2012
First floor tour of Harringay's Art Nouveau Hotel Salisbury
The Hotel Salisbury on the Grand Parade in Harringay is a beautiful 1899 monstrosity. Above is a tour of the little-seen first floor. As for the ground floor, Snipe suggests you drop by for pint and look for yourself. The video was created by Harringay Online
Edited 2 Feb 2012: Corrected the spelling of Harringay and added credit.
31 Jan 2012
No-one seems to know if Ken Livingstone's 7% fare cut is achievable. But it's still good politics
Here’s Ken Livingstone giving an “absolute guarantee” that if he doesn’t cut fares by 7% in October he will resign.
Well it’s certainly bold. But can he do it? And more importantly, can he convince voters that he can do it?
Channel 4’s Fact Check blog, which is well respected, thinks he can’t.
“Mr Livingstone is wrong to claim there’s a £729m surplus that’s sitting in the bank, and there is no separate budget for investment projects. If he cuts fares, TfL would expect to lose £1.12bn in income from fares – and that’s a hole he wouldn’t be able to plug without hitting the day-to-day funding for London’s transport or taking money from investment projects.”
So that’s that then. But wait, because another well respected independent factchecker, Fullfact, disagrees:
“…it seems to become a question of priority. TfL’s analysis, and Channel 4’s conclusion, appears to be that any potential funds which it fails to extract from customers is money wasted. Mr Livingstone’s approach appears to be that these funds would be best left in the hands of customers.”
When even the well respected independent factcheckers can’t agree on an issue, it’s a fair bet that voters have better things to do than try to work it out for themselves.
So what matters is the message. And the message coming loud and clear from all of this is: Ken Livingstone = lower fares. There are some caveats, and there are some doubts. But there’s no way that message isn’t going to help him with voters who use public transport.
Channel 4 Fact Check – Can Ken Livingstone deliver a ‘fare deal’ for London?
Fullfact – Is TfL ‘cooking the books’? Or is Ken miscounting the costs?
31 Jan 2012
London agenda for Tuesday 31 January
1. Travel from pub to pub listening to classical music at Purcell and Pork Scratchings [Le Cool]
2. Buy a new print from the Print Club [Run RIot]
3. Start a Revolution by talking to Gene Sharp, director Ruaridh Arrow and Ausama Monajed at the Curzon [Don’t Panic]
4. Be subjected to the Inquisition [Ian Visits]
5. Walk in Ladywell Fields [Tired of London]
31 Jan 2012
London agenda for Monday 30 January
1. Follow the the Age of Enlightenment Orchestra from pub to pub playing classical music [Le Cool]
2. Discuss one’s nether regions at Fannying Around [Run RIot]
3. Discuss the video essay Patience (After Sebald) with director Grant Gee [Don’t Panic]
4. Listen to Alain de Botton discuss Religion for Atheists [Ian Visits]
5. Eat at Simpson’s Tavern [Tired of London]
30 Jan 2012
Olympics blamed for another cultural closure
The Standard reports that a Greenwich theatre company is done for, and they’re going down shouting that it’s all the Olympics’ fault. The Big Chill festival has already gone the same way shouting the same thing. If current trends continue, we will have to consider the possibility that there might not be any culture left AT ALL come late July. Except for all the officially approved Olympic branded culture, of course. And we all know that officially approved culture is the best sort there is.
Evening Standard – Theatre blames Olympics for closure
Snipe – Olympic heat proves too much for cancelled Big Chill
Snipe – The Olympics will ruin everything
30 Jan 2012
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
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