Westminster pub bars LGBT group, says LGBT group

No Sex Please, We're Chelsea: Little Black Gallery gets raided for its front-window display

One would think with all the crime in London the police would have enough serious malefactors to keep them busy twenty-four seven but it seems not. Apparently, there is plenty time and resources for them to speed to the scene of what many of us might consider less than urgent transgressions. Only recently Chelsea’s The Little Black Gallery got a visit from The Met after complaints about sexual images in the window from their retrospective of Irish photographer Bob Carlos Clarke. Inspector Sean Flynn raced over to have a look – it was his duty! A witness said he didn’t even finish his sandwich so eager was he to fulfil his obligations as a public servant.

CURVEBALL: The art of no conversation

“Get to know each other!” said my friend as she nipped out for a cigarette, leaving me with a new arrival. How hard could it be? We swapped job titles. “That sounds interesting”, we lied. Commute talk, the glue that holds together so much London chit chat (See The Scoop, page 4 – ed), swiftly dried up. We had nothing in common, not even tube lines. There followed a pregnant pause. He praised the lager; I commended the ale. The pause had miscarried. A silence fell upon us—the silence of the damned.

News is what we say it is

How the News of the World avoids prosecution under the Trade Descriptions Act is one of life’s little mysteries. The venerable tabloid stakes its reputation almost entirely on elaborate entrapment schemes designed to catch gullible semi-public figures with their trousers down (often literally). Take its recent “cash for royal access” snare set for Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson. Fergie was baited and snared with $40K by professional ghoul Mahzer Mahmood. She’s caught on camera accepting a pile of cash in exchange for arranging a “friendship” between Prince Andrew and whoever the hell Mahmood is pretending to be. It is quite easy to get sucked into its shrieking denunciation of the “greedy” and “devious” Duchess. Pause, for a moment, step back, and consider two questions: Is it news? And: Does it matter?

THE SCOOP: Route Plastered, Bus passengers pay more than their share for transit

Since the Mayoralty was set up, bus subsidies have soared by many hundreds of percent and billions have been poured into new lines, routes and schemes.
Most of this has been paid for by central government. But with the new coalition already cutting back, there are signs that these days of satisfaction may soon be coming to an end.

Savage Love: The Prisoner

Radio 6 Music demonstration today at noon, Broadcasting House

Separated at Birth? The London mascots and the aliens from the Simpsons

Diane Abbott announces bid for Labour leader

Dan Savage, our agony uncle, has a musical opening in NY based on his book