As the repercussions of last year’s riots continue to ripple outwards, the Metropolitan Police have embarked on a mission to train more officers in dealing with any repeat rioting.
The Met were criticised at the time over lack of officers and vehicles to contain looting and violence — in Clapham there were just eight officers available which led to police withdrawing from the area and allowing rioting to continue unabated. In the aftermath, the police took the opportunity to draw up new rules of engagement around policing and civil unrest. New Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told the London Assembly police and crime committee:
“On the Saturday night we’ve accepted from the beginning that we didn’t have enough police available to deal with Tottenham High Road. We’ve got significantly more police officers available to deploy, we’ve tested that.”
We’d love to say that these are extra officers and local policing won’t be affected but we can’t — Hogan-Howe also warned that numbers would fall while training was being given but it’s all for the greater good. Recruitment was also on the agenda at the committee and the commissioner said that the Met mustn’t disregard graduates in favour of promoting from the ranks of PCSOs.
Now that the Met’s performance is within City Hall’s remit, the mayor is responsible for overseeing the force’s strategy; though just last month he was criticised by electoral adversary Ken Livingstone over a 1700-strong dip in the capital’s police numbers. Brian Paddick, however, advocates recruiting local communities to fight crime.
Fancy a complimentary, VIP-style night out in London for you and five friends?
If so, our pals over at The Nudge have just launched a competition for exactly that, courtesy of private concierge service Innerplace.
If you win you’ll meet your five friends for cocktails and champagne at exclusive members’ club Eight, before moving on to dinner with live jazz and blues at new City steakhouse The Door, and then finish up with VIP treatment at Mahiki’s sister bar Kanaloa (including your own “Maui’s Chest Of Fire”, serving ten).
Worth a punt…
For more info and to enter the competition head to TheNudge.com, where you’ll also find the full terms and conditions.
It has been a chilly few days with temperatures averaging around 0°C, by far the coldest it has been all winter. But with clear blue skies and a bright sun, the weather has also been its crisp, bright best.
These photos show the cold weather making London shine and shiver at the same time. Happy days for purveyors of furry hats; tough times for traders working outdoors.
The cold front is due to hang around a little while longer with some snow showers forecast for the weekend.
Not that showcasing the director’s work is a particularly new idea: in 2010 Battersea Arts Centre ran a Twin Peaks Weekender, showing every episode of the television drama back to back, while last year Riverside Studios in Hammersmith ran a Lynch Film Day, screening three of his best films; at the time we were unimpressed by the decision to show Mulholland Dr. on DVD.
Happily Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece is included in the BFI season in glorious 35mm, alongside his eight other feature films, ranging from Eraserhead (1977) through to Inland Empire (2005), and a collection of his early shorts. Of particular interest to Londoners would normally be The Elephant Man (1980), Lynch’s version of the familiar Joseph Merrick story, set and filmed in various locations around the capital, but it’s only screening one more (having already been shown on Thursday) and it’s already sold out.
The Borough of Greenwich is dead. Long live the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Today, Greenwich gets a regal promotion. The Borough will adopt a Royal appellation as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. It joins existing Royal Boroughs Kensington & Chelsea and Kingston upon Thames in this privilege, and sports a new crest (right) to symbolise the new status.
Greenwich certainly deserves the honour, at least from an historical perspective. Three monarchs — Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I – were born at the palace of Placentia, the long-demolished royal residence formerly on the site of today’s Old Royal Naval College. Only St James’s Palace can boast more Crown births. In addition, boy king Edward VI died at Placentia, and two of Henry VIII’s marriages took place there.
Then there are, or were, many other ‘Royal’ buildings around the borough: the Royal Observatory (itself part of the newly branded Royal Museums Greenwich), the Royal Artillery, Dockyards and Arsenal downriver at Woolwich, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on the slopes of Shooters Hill.
Diamond Geezer has more on the naming, and similar bestowments around the country, while Darryl Chamberlain gives a local’s view.
Stoke Newington has come top of a list of national burglary hotspots, according to a financial comparison website.
The site looked at 3m quotes for home insurance made over a year and found that 33.6% of applicants living in N16 declared a previous claim for theft. This could mean various things: maybe Stokey residents are more honest and own up to previous incidents, or it shows that people who have had a burglary are more likely to need to switch insurers (bye bye to the no claims discount that made your old policy so cheap) or maybe, indeed, the mung bean capital of North London is thief heaven. It’s all so different from the picture painted by comedian Helen Arney.
Also battling it out with seemingly crime-ridden West Yorkshire for places in the top 20 are Wood Green, Streatham, Woodford Green, Barnet and Mill Hill.
The centre is run by St Mungo’s and provides hot showers, food and clean clothes as well as refuge from the sub-zero streets and a bed for the night. Support and advice is also available to help guests get off the streets for good.
All boroughs have ‘Severe Weather Emergency Protocols’ which kick in whenever three consecutive nights of freezing temperatures are predicted and a full list of London shelters is available from Homeless Link.
If you are concerned about a rough sleeper, you can contact St Mungo’s outreach teams, who are working round the clock in Westminster, Southwark and Ealing to bring people in off the streets.
We find it impossible not to get excited about music awards and with this year?s star-spangled Brit and NME ceremonies dominated by London artists — such as Adele and The Vaccines — there?s every reason to want a bit of the action.
Luckily this year you can join in. Tickets to attend the NME awards go on sale tomorrow morning, and tickets for a special Brit Awards Party in aid of War Child will be available from Saturday. Both feature unique performances from London?s best talent.
OK, you won?t be treading the red carpet (your mates don?t have to know that) but opportunities to see Florence Welch collaborate with the Horrors at the NME awards and Damon Albarn with Graham Coxon in their first show together since the phenomenal Blur reunion shows simply cannot be missed.
Tickets for the NME Awards @ Brixton Academy, 29 February are on sale 9am Friday 3 February through See Tickets.
The Brit Awards Party @ Shepherds Bush Empire, 19 February tickets on sale 9am Saturday 4 February through Ticket Web.
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