Olympic lanes will risk lives claims Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone has called on Boris Johnson to reverse his plans to remove dozens of pedestrian crossings during the Olympics, claiming that it will risk lives. TfL are consulting on plans to close over 50 pedestrian crossings as part of the Olympic Route Network.
Livingstone advocates a SXSW-style fest for London
London’s Labour Party members will be choosing their candidate for 2012’s mayoral election during September – with the capital’s live music scene joining transport, housing and the economy as one of the themes of the debate.
Challenger and former MP Oona King – last seen losing to George Galloway in her Bethnal Green & Bow seat five years ago – has made much of her apparent youth in the contest, with the 43-year-old fondly reminiscing about nights out at the Ministry of Sound.
Housing is the next political battlefield, with council tenants and private renters at risk
The provision of so-called affordable housing has stuck in the Tory craw for many years. The idea that society might provide decent accommodation such that those on low incomes are not left to the mercy of predatory private sector landlords is, of course, anathema to a government of landowners.
But the scale of the attack mounted by this government on council housing is enough to elicit gasps. As a result of the Localism Bill, which was rushed through Parliament earlier this year and which is now waiting for royal assent, security of tenure for council tenants will be scrapped – a move that MP John McDonnell this week said “ends council housing as we know it.”
Woolwich woes: what if you threw a riot and nobody saw?
Many London districts hit by riots got lovebombed afterwards – but one got the big stick from its council instead. Welcome to Woolwich, a beaten-up, beaten-down place that’s not likely to feature in any “new Hoxton” lists soon.
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
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