London

Birth Place Of Hypocracy

The Mother of all Parliaments, which says a lot about the rest of the world’s HYPOCRACIES

February 2nd 2023

A rendering of Smithfield Market’s redesigned exterior, which is being repurposed as the new home for the Museum of London.
A rendering of Smithfield Market’s redesigned exterior, which is being repurposed as the new home for the Museum of London.Rendering courtesy Stanton Williams Architects

CityLab

Design

London’s Historic Smithfield Market Meets a New Chapter

The vast Victorian meat wholesaler in central London is being transformed into a museum and food hall complex, a shift that stands to reshape the city. 

By

Feargus O’Sullivan

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Any early morning visitor to London’s Smithfield Market area in 2023 can’t fail to notice the change: Gone — for the first time in more than 800 years — is the heady stench of raw meat.

The dense knot of ancient lanes at this heart of the complex is now largely silent; the market’s gates are padlocked and the rumbling refrigerated trucks have vanished. The silence, however, is only temporary. Shuttered since November 2022, the historic market site will soon come back to life. By 2025, Smithfield’s 1960s Poultry Market and annex will reopen as the home of the Museum of London, while its elaborate Victorian Central Market will subsequently relaunch as a combined food hall/conference center/co-working space, in a redesign led by Studio Egret West.

The meat sellers, meanwhile, are being banished to the city’s eastern edge. In 2027, a new 42-acre wholesale mega-market will open on a Thames-side site at the former coal port of Dagenham Dock. This facility will combine Smithfield with New Billingsgate and New Spitalfields — wholesale fish, fruit and flower markets that were already relocated from their historic central London locations decades ago to new sites, but now need to move on from their subsequent less central locations due to increased traffic and pressure on land.

General view of Smithfield Market
Smithfield Market shuttered in November as it prepares to move to a new location in Dagenham, on the city’s eastern edge.Photo by Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Smithfield redevelopment could be a pivotaltransformation of Central London, turning a once-overlooked area into a new axis and public living room for the entire city. In terms of placemaking, restoration and public access, the project is set to be a key test of what contemporary London is able to deliver.

Smithfield’s revamp bears special attention because, despite being at the city’s heart, the area has been comparatively undervisited. While it’s a key transit hub known for its good restaurants (and is the traditional place for Londoners to score a cheap Christmas turkey), Smithfield gets a fraction of the footfall of another historic market complex, Covent Garden. That relative neglect isn’t surprising — the scented candles and lifestyle accessories like the ones on sale at Covent Garden are perhaps more visitor-friendly than wholesale beef carcasses. But given the weight of Smithfield’s history, that low-profile seems like an opportunity missed.

Smithfield Market
A view of Smithfield market, London in 1839. Photo by Edward Gooch Collection/Getty Images

One of the few places in London to escape the fire of 1666, the market’s neighborhood is a treasure chest of remarkable buildings. Here you’ll find the city’s oldest house (a mere adolescent by European standards, at a little over 400 years old), a hospital that turned 900 years old this year, and a largely Norman church in whose converted chapel a teenage Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer. Within coin-throwing distance are remnants of Medieval monasteries, Renaissance-era schools and a street of former brothels that Shakespeare name-checked in Henry IV.

Much of the area’s history is grim: The site witnessed the execution of William “Braveheart” Wallace and, during Mary I’s attempted reversal of the English Reformation, the burning at the stake of many Protestant Londoners. Barely 200 years ago, men still reputedly sold their wives at the Smithfield Market (though this seems to have been more a form of divorce than human trafficking). Local lore frequently takes a macabre turn. A now-subterranean river flanking the site was long rumored to be infested with giant pigs, while an 18th century hoax claimed the area was haunted by a ghost called “Scratching Fanny” — located in, of all places, a street called Cock Lane

A 2010 attempt to promote the Smithfield area by rebranding it “Midtown” only seems to have succeeded by uniting Londoners in scorn.

Closing the market here was a bittersweet choice. Meat and livestock have been sold on this site since the Middle Ages. The area’s name — whose original name meant “smooth field” in Middle English — was a reference to the flat grazing meadow here whose location just outside London’s walls made it a good place to corral and graze animals brought to market. That market’s departure for East London may be a jolt — but channeling meat trucks through the congested heart of London does seem like a habit from another era. 

A butcher holds a pig's head at the Smit
A butcher holds a pig’s head at the Smithfield market in 2006. The complex has been the heart of London’s meat trade for many centuries.  Photographer: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images

No historic buildings should be lost in the redevelopment, while the market’s relocation won’t inconvenience many home chefs, as it was not much of a place for Londoners to buy groceries — that possibility exists elsewhere, at the hugely popular (if pricey) Borough Market across the river.

The move is also a great opportunity for the underrated Museum of London, to be relaunched as the London Museum, which has been telling the story of the city’s close-to-2,000-year history in a modernist building within walking distance since 1976. The new Smithfield site, to be redesigned by Stanton Williams Architects, will be notably bigger, allowing space not just for expanded exhibitions but also a large covered area for public events that will be open on one side to the street. The site’s renovation is also uncovering some London history of its own: So far the project has discovered an intact tiled Victorian cafe hidden within the building and a long-covered spring, whose surprisingly clear water visitors will be invited to drink.

Smithfield's Poultry Market before renovation
The 1960s dome of Smithfield’s Poultry Market shortly before closure.Photo: Stanton Williams Architects

The idea of a rough-edged but charismatic commercial neighborhood in the heart of the city being given an upscale makeover might give some Londoners pause. It’s exactly this process that turned New York City’s battered but lively Meatpacking District into a tidy but tedious designer emporium, and Paris’ Les Halles Market from a lively all-night pit stop to a generic mall. Meanwhile, in a country poised for a recession, London’s plans already show a recent tendency for downscaling and compromise. The Museum of London’s former site near the Barbican, for example, was due to be replaced by a new Diller + Scofidio-designed concert hall, but that project has already been put on ice.

Stanton Williams rendering of the London Museum's new location in Smithfields' Poultry Market
A rendering of the Poultry Market as it will look after reopening as the London Museum.Rendering courtesy Stanton Williams Architects

Smithfield differs from Les Halles and the Meatpacking District, however, because the current redevelopment doesn’t risk damaging an existing affordable ecosystem. Located right on the edge of London’s financial district, the area’s brief spell as a hip, cheap place to hang out ended at least 20 years ago, and housing and commercial rents are already high. Furthermore, London has managed some market conversions within living memory. Until the 1980s, all the city’s wholesale markets were centrally located, but they have been since been moved out to more peripheral locations and their sites converted.

Some of these conversions were only equivocal successes: Inner East London’s Spitalfields Market was part-restored, part-demolished, with a huge office development tacked on one end. This lopsided development now gives the impression that the new offices are wearing the older market buildings like a sort of mask. The fish market building at Billingsgate, meanwhile, was left intact when its market activities were moved to the eastern docks, but was converted to office and private hire space that the public can’t access. But the 1980 conversion of Covent Garden Market into a mall and pedestrian plaza was a great success, doing much to kick-start central London’s transformation into a livelier, more walkable place. If Smithfield can replicate this success, then it will be doing very well indeed.

Smithfield Market
An aerial view of the Smithfield Market complex in 2018.Photographer: Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Perhaps the most significant aspect of Smithfield’s transformation, however, it that it will accelerate a shift in London’s center of gravity, one underway since the 1980s. Until then, the core of the 20th-century city was informally but quite rigidly zoned: Financial and corporate London lay almost exclusively in the eastern City of London (between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower); shopping and entertainment lay in the West End; and the area in between, where Smithfield lies, was a scrappy, somewhat forlorn zone of workshops, warehouses and shabby smaller offices that was dead during evenings and weekends. Since the redevelopment of London’s docks, which started in the 1980s, the city’s focus has swung eastwards, thanks mainly to the new corporate skyscraper district at Canary Wharf. Soon after the Docklands’ renovation, London’s nearby inner East End started to transform — first to a hip warehouse district, then to an expensive residential and office district trying (with mixed results) to hold on to its lucratively edgy vibe.

During this period, Smithfield and surrounding neighborhoods have become livelier (especially to eat in) but have never quite had the vitality of the districts on to its east and west — partly because its roads remained truck-laden through-routes. A 2010 attempt to promote the area by rebranding it “Midtown” only seems to have succeeded by uniting Londoners in scorn. Recently, things have started to change. Farringdon, Smithfields’ closest station, is now a key stop on the new Elizabeth Line, with direct fast connections to Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Gradually, some nearby areas are being made more appealing through pedestrianization, opening up the stretch between the market and the river. Placing a major new museum so close to the Barbican Centre, arguably London’s best arts complex, stands to make the area even more of a destination. 

The old meat market’s next incarnation could tap that infrastructure to make this long-neglected area the real rather than just the geographical center of London. Just don’t come down here looking for a cheap turkey.

October 17th 2022

Met Police creates anti-corruption unit to ‘root out’ criminal officers

  • Published
  • 7 October
New Scotland Yard sign
Image caption, The unit will use bold new tactics to identify police officers and staff who have no place in the Met, the force says

The Metropolitan Police has created a new anti-corruption unit to “root out” criminal colleagues within the force.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has assigned about 100 detectives to help the Met’s fight against wrongdoing within the ranks, the force said.

The move follows a number of high-profile scandals over sexism and misogyny allegations.

The Met said the team would deploy covert tactics to “identify and respond swiftly to any emerging threats”.

Speaking about the new Anti-Corruption and Abuse Command, Sir Mark said: “We will be proactive and unrelenting in actively seeking out these criminal colleagues.

“I make no apology for this ruthlessness in evicting those who undermine our integrity as we seek to reform the Met and give the public the confidence in us they deserve.”

Media caption, Sir Mark Rowley spoke to BBC Breakfast in April 2022 about the challenges facing police

So far this year a number of former Met Police officers have been convicted of various offences: ex-detective Neil Corbel was jailed for secretly filming dozens of women; Swaleh Chaudhry pleaded guilty to upskirting a woman in a Primark changing room and PC Adnan Arib was jailed for using his position to try to start a sexual relationship with “vulnerable” teenagers.

The new unit is to adopt the same tactics used to target those engaged in corrupt relationships with criminals, the Met said.

It also aims to tackle those whose behaviour “corrupts public trust”.

Neil Corbel
Image caption, Det Insp Neil Corbel who secretly filmed models during fake photoshoots was jailed for three years in January
Presentational grey line

Analysis

By Home Affairs correspondent Tom Symonds

In the fictional world of AC12, the BBC’s drama Line of Duty portrayed a team focused on rooting out “bent coppers” as the character Supt Ted Hastings famously said, in order to bring them to justice.

This new command is the Met’s equivalent.

In the past the force has had a serious corruption problem, with police officers taking advantage of a close relationship with criminals or private investigators working for newspapers.

Even last year an officer was jailed for working with a gang to steal drugs from its rivals by stopping them under the pretext of police work.

But it is becoming increasingly clear that the Met’s current reputational problems stem from, broadly, abusive cops.

Read More https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63160952

May 19th 2020

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Comment There is no doubt that London needs more police officers ( on the beat ), but the police needs urgent root and branch reform and not to be target driven as the horrible Blair made them be. London isn’t one thing. the Chief its just chief bullshitter , offering an illusion of organisation and direction- horrible vested interests.

London needs breaking up and the reality of impossible multi culture seen for what it is. Upping the old ‘sus laws’ will make maters worse. As police chiefs said today – they’ re not all stupid- crime will rise thanks tot he cost of living explosiion which is all thanks to BJ Boris funding an immoral war against Russia. For more on that read the About Russia and Weird World War three pages.

London is an amorphous mass. Dick only got the top job because it had to be a woman. Her rival Sara Thornton was tarnished by the Oxford sex abuse scandal. Dick should have been tarnished for giving the order to fire 9 bullets into an innocent young Brazilian civilian. U.K police have a record for promoting corrupt officers.

Police promotion and escape from the front line is based on corruption , fitting people up. A lot of good cops , like Brian Paddick, don’t get anywhere near as high up before the overpaid parasites with all their benefits, have their lackeys weed them out. A magistrate friend told me ‘the police lie all the time.’

I know from personal expereince just how corrupt U.K police are. the Police College, ostensibly part of the system keeps issuing warnings and calling for reform. Patel s now accused of a power grab. Everyone seems to have forgotten how the police killed innocent working class white man, Ian Tomlinson.

Degrees now offer an illusion of knowledge. Universities are no longer an infinite space for discovery. They are ‘uni;’ meaning one thing; an illusion of paid for knowledge with inevitable arrogance and conceit. There is no person more confident than a ‘uni’ educated moron. Just the job for the modern police who allegedly ‘put their lives on the line’ every day they go to work.’ A famous chief polcie has said that many times, but must be nameless for legal reasons.

Decent people will struggle with life in the modern police , because the police are institutionally corrupt.. Miss Roberta jane Cook.

Facing and jail for very serious charges relating to her publications 2 years ago, Miss Roberta Jane Cook leaves for a meeting with her lawyers, today, May 19th 2022.

April 29th 2022

Met officer accused of paralysing black man loses bid for anonymity

Geneva Abdul 

Just Stop Oil protestors who targeted service stations charged by policeThe greatest talk show hosts of all time

A Metropolitan police officer accused of grievous bodily harm after a black man was left paralysed from the chest down has been named after losing a bid to keep his name from the public domain.

Imran Mahmood, 35, was charged with grievous bodily harm on 31 March and had sought anonymity from Westminster magistrates court after expressing concern of Jordan Walker-Brown’s alleged links to criminal gangs, according to the PA news agency, which sought submission of the officer’s name alongside other media organisations.

Jordan Walker-Brown, 25, was left with life-changing injuries after he was shot with a Taser and fell from a wall in Haringey, north London, while being pursued by police in May 2020. He initially said he believed he was targeted because he is a black man.

Read More Met officer accused of paralysing black man loses bid for anonymity (msn.com)

Comment I know from experience that the U.K police are institutionally corrupt and pretty much unaccountable. This is not just some officers. It is the culture , with corruption and lying rife at senior levels – in collusion with the CPS who are only interested in convictions. Our appalling elite politicians are culpable. They do not want reform. The system must not be questioned, with them driving the quest for convictions, especially of men accused of sex offences to impress feminists and female voters.

Miss Roberta Jane Cook

April 6th 2022

Drunk Met Police detective bit members of public at house party before attacking officer called to arrest her

Josh Bolton 

A police officer bit and strangled a number of members of the public at a house party before assaulting another police officer who tried to arrest her, a misconduct hearing has heard. In May last year Special Constable Fatma Ahmed attended a house party which breached Covid restrictions and got extremely drunk, a report of the hearing last month, published on 5 April, reveals.

Read More Drunk Met Police detective bit members of public at house party before attacking officer called to arrest her (msn.com)

March 30th 2022

Met Police officer headbutted bar manager for trying to enforce social distancing during Covid lockdown

Tom Haynes 

AMetropolitan Police Officer has been handed a 10-week prison sentence after he headbutted a bar manager for trying to enforce social distancing last year. Luke Wilson, 28, had been on a night out at a cocktail bar in Monument with colleges in July 2021 when staff asked the group to sit at different tables due to coronavirus regulations in place at the time.© PAThe Police Officer sentenced for assaulting a bar manager

Read More Met Police officer headbutted bar manager for trying to enforce social distancing during Covid lockdown (msn.com)

Comment These are the special types of person the police likes to recruit. Very few get the prosecutions they deserve. Metropolitan police are said to be the best in the country. R J Cook.

March 18th 2022

Harrods sold £150 Russian vodka ‘from under the counter’ despite ban due to Ukraine invasion

Seren Hughes & Richard Wheeler  

Harrods sold £150 Russian vodka from “underneath the counter” despite Russian products being removed from the store’s shelves as pressure mounts on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Labour MP Chris Bryant called out businesses “not really pulling their weight in delivering sanctions on Russia over Ukraine” in the House of Commons yesterday, claiming that £150 Beluga vodka is available “literally underneath the counter” at Harrods if you ask for it.

Read More Harrods sold £150 Russian vodka ‘from under the counter’ despite ban due to Ukraine invasion (msn.com)

People, including senior police officers , who live in glass houses, should not throw stones.

By Roberta Jane Cook

Comment Britain is full of stuffed shirts and hypocrites ruling over people who behave like sheep. If Britain was a democracy , government and special interest groups would not be censoring certain opinions. As a male to female transsexual, I don’t mind morons slagging me off , so long as I can slag of football supporters, and give my views on Islamists, transphobes and Trans Radical Feminists. That seems like democracy.

A democracy would not have special interest groups , including feminists and Islamists , given state, legal and police protection while the police can call me a paranoid schizophrenic bi polar delusional personality just because one senior police officer past acquaintance says so. That person, by the way, should recall the old proverb ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.’ As for young white men, it is open season on them. R J Cook

The masses are clueless, like sheep. They cannot see what’s coming, blinded by the headlines.
Written and performed and recorded in 1986, Robert Cook’s lyrics : “The Nuclear winter is coming, coming down on the breeze, and old Reagan is says it don’t matter, he says it’s just God with a sneeze. And your flesh will burn and your bones will melt and your heart won’t beat anymore, and there’s nowhere to run when the show goes down, There’s nowhere to hide when it rains.” R J Cook 1986.

March 16th 2022

Racism cited as factor in police strip search of girl, 15, at London school

Ben Quinn 

A black child was subjected by police to a strip search at her London school that involved exposure of intimate body parts, according to an official investigation which found racism was likely to have been an “influencing factor” in the officers’ actions.

No appropriate adult was present during the 15-year-old girl’s ordeal, described by a senior local authority figure as “humiliating, traumatising and utterly shocking” and which took place without parental consent and in the knowledge that she was menstruating.

Read More Racism cited as factor in police strip search of girl, 15, at London school (msn.com)

Always Tell The Truth – by Roberta Jane Cook.

Miss Roberta Jane Cook, March 2022.

Comment I have said it so many times before. The police seem to select a certain types of unpleasant and often dishonest bullying individuals. The Metropolitan Police are allegedly Britain’s Gold Standard. That speaks volumes for the rest of the country.

I am aware that there are good officers but, like former Chief Constable Sue Sim. However, even in the unlikely event they get to the top, they won’t survive because like recruits like. My understanding of police malpractice has come from very unpleasant terrifying humiliating experience over the last 14 years.

A few years ago, a police officer friend told me he didn’t like the police. Like a fool I said, ‘How can you be a police officer if you don’t like the police ?’ Then I answered my own question, ‘Oh yes I used to work for the Inland Revenue and didn’t like them. It was a secure job’

Like me when I embarked on over 20 years public service, some join the police with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, the ones who rise to the top, recruiting and defining the culture are some of the worst. We have seen the police have their share of sex offenders. Sarah Everard’s killer cop, Wayne Couzens, plumbed new depths. How many more vanished girls were victims of sick police officers abusing their powers. ? The Met’s DS Challoner of West End Central was ring leader of a racket exploiting prostitutes and drugs, in hoc with gangsters in the 1960s.

One got the impression that Sarah Everard was not Couzen’s first victim and that he had connections with East European gangs to whom he was indebted due to sex addiction. His workmates laughingly nicknamed him ‘The Rapist.’ They exchanged crude text messages in the wake of her murder. One got the impression that Sarah Everard was not Couzen’s first victim and that he was tooled up for his crime.

Who remembers PC Steven Harwood who killed Ian Tomlinson on camera, getting away with it, because the police surgeon smeared the victim. He said Ian was an alcoholic and was going to die at the very moment he was fatally assaulted. Ian was white.

The British police harbour racists , bullies , classists and perverts. They tend to have social science degrees handed out by the ‘unis’ and paid for by the taxpayer if they are ambitious and have the right stuff. The emphasis is on the word ‘right.’

People will have forgotten the Greater Manchester womanising sex pest Chief Constable who committed suicide in the North Wales mountains rather than face the consequences of his behaviour. One could go on. I have spent some years collating the cases.

As the besmirched honest Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick wrote in his memoirs : ‘It wasn’t my homosexuality that caused me problems in the Metropolitan Police. It was my honesty. As Mark Twain wrote : ” Always tell the truth. That way you won’t have to remember what you said.” ‘

Former Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick noted in his memoirs ” It wasn’t my homosexuality that caused me problems in the police. It was my honesty.’ He advised readers to follow Mark Twain’s words ‘Always tell the truth. That way you do not have to remember what you said.’

February 17th 2022

‘Foolish’ Met Police officer who arranged to meet girl, 15, in park after school faces jail

Martin Evans 

A Metropolitan Police officer has been found guilty of misconduct in public office after arranging to meet a 15-year-old girl in a park after school.Metropolitan Police officer Pc Adnan Arib, 45, arrives at Southark Crown Court, south London, where he faces two charges of misconduct in a public office in relation to his alleged behaviour towards two teenagers he met while on duty - Yui Mok/PA Wire© Yui Mok/PA Wire Metropolitan Police officer Pc Adnan Arib, 45, arrives at Southark Crown Court, south London, where he faces two charges of misconduct in a public office in relation to his alleged behaviour towards two teenagers he met while on duty – Yui Mok/PA Wire

Pc Adnan Arib, 45, also bombarded a 16-year-old runaway with dozens of text messages after telling her she was “very pretty”.

Read More ‘Foolish’ Met Police officer who arranged to meet girl, 15, in park after school faces jail (msn.com)

February 15th 2022

London Assembly votes to condemn Priti Patel’s borders bill as ‘racist’ legislation

Jon Stone 

Priti Patel’s nationality and borders bill is a “potential racist” piece of legislation and should not go ahead, the London Assembly has said.

A large majority in the devolved chamber backed a motion calling on the Home Secretary to stop the controversial legislation and said it “places Britons of ethnic minorities as second-class citizens”.

Read More London Assembly votes to condemn Priti Patel’s borders bill as ‘racist’ legislation (msn.com)

42-year-old former London Underground District line train to return to passenger service in West London after 5 year absence from capital

Callum Marius

When the ‘D Stock’ trains which ran on the London Underground District line made their final journeys in April 2017, London thought it had seen the last of them. Now, one of the 75 trainsets is making a surprising return to the capital thanks to an overhaul which means it is able to run using a giant battery. This technology will allow it to run a zero local emission, environmentally friendly service on the few non-electrified passenger lines in London, which currently rely on diesel to power passenger trains.

Read More 42-year-old former London Underground District line train to return to passenger service in West London after 5 year absence from capital (msn.com)

‘Doesn’t seem possible’: Londoner who wants to house Afghan refugees

Diane Taylor 

Ukraine crisis: Biden warns that Russia invasion ‘still very much a possibility’ –…Celebs Go Dating’s Miles and Chloe make surprising decisionPhotograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

Krystyna Deuss arrived in the UK at the age of four in 1947 as a refugee from Poland. When she saw headlines about Afghans being airlifted to safety last summer, she wanted to help.

Now a Londoner, she had fled with her family during postwar communist rule in the country of her birth. Like many of the Afghans airlifted to safety, her family had had to go into hiding before they fled. Her father was a judge and she said members of the “intelligentsia” such as him were at risk.

As her father had been a judge, she was particularly keen to support somebody in the same profession. As such, she offered a flat in central London to a female Afghan judge and her family.

Read More ‘Doesn’t seem possible’: Londoner who wants to house Afghan refugees (msn.com)

Man stabbed in broad daylight near King’s Cross Station

Seren Hughes 

A man in his 30s was stabbed in broad daylight near King’s Cross Station this afternoon (February 15). Police were called at around 1pm to reports of an assault on Weston Rise in Islington.

Read More Man stabbed in broad daylight near King’s Cross Station (msn.com)

Comment The police are preoccupied with social control and showing they are not racist. They have lost control of London’s streets. I have seen the place all hours as a food delivery driver. It is horrible. R J Cook

London horror: Man with ‘huge curved knife’ attacked woman in Twickenham ‘He was waiting’

Ellie Cook  

The incident took place on February 12, when the two friends were walking towards Twickenham Bridge, in South West London. They were passing along Ducks Walk just before the incident unfolded.

They then saw a man make a move towards them, emerging from underneath the bridge’s steps.

He was “holding a large curbed knife above his head”, one of the women claimed.

He then charged towards them “at speed”.

The two women escaped “unscathed” from the attack, with one describing the help of “extraordinarily kind and brave” strangers.

She wrote on social media: “From the placement of this individual, it would appear he was waiting for a victim to walk down the steps of the bridge to the river walkway, where his placement would have been visibly concealed.”

She urged all other passers-by to be cautious when travelling through the area.

Read More London horror: Man with ‘huge curved knife’ attacked woman in Twickenham ‘He was waiting’ (msn.com)

February 14th 2022

We have no faith in London Mayor Sadiq Khan, says Metropolitan Police Federation

Dick & Khan, the long running London Comedy Duo have parted company. The Police Federation will miss her because she just went with the flow, with no real idea of what to do. except spout jargon and look mean. She was never a threat to the status quo.
R J Cook

The body represents thousands of rank-and-file police officers in the capital.

he Metropolitan Police Federation has declared it has “no faith” in London Mayor Sadiq Khan after the “very public ousting” of Dame Cressida Dick as commissioner.

The body representing more than 31,000 rank-and-file police officers claimed comments made by Mr Khan have “undermined the professional, dedicated and incredibly difficult work of tens of thousands of hard-working and brave police officers from across the capital”.

Read More We have no faith in Sadiq Khan, says Metropolitan Police Federation | Evening Standard

U.K Police chiefs have a very high opinion of themselves. They cast themselves as heroes and don’t like criticism. The rank and file have fought reform for decades. As for officers being assaulted, one has to consider their physical and verbal attitude to the public.
However, I have never assaulted anyone and do not condone that. Nor do I see any point in protesting. Peaceful protests are ignored and anything stronger begets jail and a life destroying criminal record. Police Chiefs, however, need to consider the culture they are heading.
One might blame the politicians if it wasn’t for police asking for ever greater powers to intrude into the public’s lives. It is not just BAME who are given a hard time by the target driven, corruption hiding, U.K police. R J Cook.

Comment If this was not so serious it would be funny, just like the following story. The Metropolitan Police Federation are rather missing the point. It is not about their confidence in the Mayor. The fact they don’t know this already informs us as to just how moronic they are. It is about the Mayor and the public’s confidence in them. The latter pay the hideously high taxes for this institutionally corrupt mega police force, where senior officers have their massive perks while the lower ranks sport a canteen and bullying culture.

The very fact they lament the passing of the most incompetent Commissioner yet- and she had a lot of competition – speaks volumes. As I have said elsewhere, for me Dick is defined by her role in the unlawful killing of innocent young Brazilian Charles De Menezes on a London Underground Train – parked at the platform at what used to be my local station, Stockwell. A key witness was rubbished as a prostitute and station video conveniently disappeared. It is interesting how often the Stephen Lawrence killing gets a mainstream media mention because of the black issue, but never Charles. If Dick knew shame she would have resigned at the time of the killing.

It is my impression, when comparing how senior cops ganged up on Chief Constable Sue Sim, another person who is forgotten by cop loving media, with Dick, there are obvious conclusions. That is that Sue Sim tried to rout out senior level corruption trickling down to an appalling operational mentality. On the other hand, Dick who appeared as if one of the boys, sat back and did nothing but rubber stamp her officers conduct, no matter how dreadful and corrupt. R J Cook

Met Police commander who wrote force’s drug strategy accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms

Telegraph reporters

A Metropolitan Police commander who chaired misconduct hearings and wrote the force’s current drug strategy has been accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms.

Cmdr Bennett is also accused of refusing to provide a drug sample on July 21 2020, after being informed there was reasonable cause to suspect that he had used cannabis.

The hearing also heard that a photo sent on WhatsApp showing what appeared to be cannabis on a table had been submitted as evidence.

Read More Met Police commander who wrote force’s drug strategy accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms (msn.com)

South London estate where residents are terrified their entire block will collapse if new flats built on top

Locals are worried their flats are too weak to take the extra weight

Residents on a South London estate fear their homes will collapse if new flats are built on top. Southwark Council wants to add two floors of council homes above four tower blocks on the Southampton Way Estate in Peckham.

But people living there are worried their flats are too weak to take the weight of the extra storeys. They claim their homes are already creaking with age and have a growing list of problems that need sorting such as cracked windows, broken drains and black mould.

Read More South London estate where residents are terrified their entire block will collapse if new flats built on top – MyLondon

February 13th 2022

A teenager has been charged with murder following the death of an 18-year-old who was stabbed in north London.

A post-mortem found Donovan Allen died from a single stab wound to the chest
© PA A post-mortem found Donovan Allen died from a single stab wound to the chest

Timothy Adeoye, 18, of no fixed address, will appear in court on Monday.

He has been charged over the death of Donovan Allen on the evening of 7 February, the Metropolitan Police said.

Mr Allen, of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, was found in Ayley Croft, Enfield, and died at the scene despite the efforts of the emergency services to save him.

A post-mortem found he died from a single stab wound to the chest.

Read More Teenager charged with murder after death of 18-year-old in stabbing (msn.com)

Professor who suggested non-white Britons not ‘indigenous’ to advise Gove on levelling-up plan

Rob Merrick 

Michael Gove has picked a controversial professor who suggested non-white British-born people are not “indigenous” to advise him on levelling up plans, The Independent can reveal.

The appointment of Paul Collier, who claimed immigration has made “the indigenous British” a “minority” in London – apparently excluding ethnic minorities – has been condemned as “divisive” by anti-racism campaigners.

Read More Professor who suggested non-white Britons not ‘indigenous’ to advise Gove on levelling-up plan (msn.com)

Ignorance is bliss

– by Roberta Jane Cook.

Roberta Jane Cook, a late night traveller on the London Underground in 2012. My burly male companion took the photo. London is no place for a lone white woman at night. Free speech is now illegal. This country will never change for the better. Its elite preoccupation with Ukraine says a lot about priorities. The preoccupation with BAME is all part of the levelling down agenda. BAME are not native to North Europe. They have dark skins as an adaptation to hot climate.
R J Cook

A Comment To state obvious truths is very dangerous in this age of ethnic opportunism and white liberal love and denial. As my late mother used to say : ‘Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise.’

So activists on the approved self styled totally intolerant list and kind think this truth is divisive – that non white Britons are not indigenous to London. Quite simply they are not. Similarly white people are not indigenous to North America or Latin America – please note that Hispanics are white people. White people are not indigenous to Africa. People of the Indian sub continent are not indigenous to London, but they are of the same Caucasian race as white people. The liberal fascists are determined to change the language to make religion a race.

As for being divisive, BLM is the most divisive movement since the NAZIS. It is not a solution to police corruption, police liars and police psychopaths. It is an approved top down device to shift blame on to the white masses and engender fear. TERF feminism is a similarly useful top down device to attack male to female white transsexuals, ( and white men in general because TERFS do not comment on black rapists or black gangsters ) thus promoting their cause. They have much in common with BLM.

BLM and open door immigration has much to do with the played down recent attack, including scalping, on a white woman reported on this site yesterday. In our nasty small minded elite driven society, it is OK to put transsexuals, who are mainly white , in the hate firing line. It is OK to say, because of another approved activist group ( TERFS ) that men can’t be women and are disguising themselves so as to assault and rape women. It is divisive to say that BAME predominate in these sex & violence areas- police are also highly implicated in violence toward women but that also gets down played.

It is self evident that female transsexuals, like me, are not born women. it is not self evident that we exist to rape women. It is self evident that blacks are not indigenous to London or Europe as a whole. that doesn’t mean they are harmful per se . However, this hearts on sleeve white guilt upper middle class idiot liberalism coupled with BLM and a cultural bias, is divisive.

This country is divided, London is now a BAME city and that is what the ignorant ‘uni’ educated ( sic ) are confusing purposefully with the description ; indigenous.’ That makes them feel so good. Meanwhile, look what happened to one of our best living historians, David Starky, .He was pressed to comment on black youth culture and its’ influence on whites and he saw it as hopeless chavism. He was sacked. The elite approved activists are dumbing us down. The notion of levelling up is utterly absurd. Pandering to Royalty with their privileges says it all. R J Cook

Robert Jane Cook, a transsexual woman, says ‘Why should I tolerate TERF hate criminals making me a hate target for the sub moronic saying I am a danger to cis women when it is not acceptable to their type to say that BAME are disproportionately represented with sex attacks on white women. Whites are no longer allowed any form of identity or homeland. BAME gangs are responsible for the outburst of violent crime in London. BLM does imply Black lives better. Black Africa is incredibly trans and homophobic. South Africa is racist to white people. The Congo is riven with crime and ignorance. West Africa is bringing back military dictators and those who don’t like it join the flow to U.K to become ‘indigenous’ ( sic ) to London, I could go on.

February 12th 2022

Police launch urgent manhunt after woman SCALPED and punched in horror London attack

James Lee 

Police appeal
Amazingly Police have been allowed to admit this was a racist attack – or maybe they will be condemned by the white liberal left in due course. For all of the police’s short comings and corruption, there are certain key problems they are not free to deal with.

The horror assault took place outside East Croydon Railway Station, south London, at around 6.45 pm on December 18. The Metropolitan Police Service said the suspect pulled the 31-year-old victim’s hair, resulting in a portion being ripped from her scalp. The suspect then punched the woman in the back of her head, causing her to fall.

Police have stated the incident was an unprovoked racist attack.

Read More Police launch urgent manhunt after woman SCALPED and punched in horror London attack (msn.com)

Comment Good policing is essential. Police corruption is off the scale due to management , hierarchies and like recruiting like. However good an aspiring low ranking police officer might want to be, the structure ties his or her hands because the culture and the rules can put them out of a job or worse.

It is noteworthy that the patronising white liberal chattering classes and BLM opine that it is impossible for blacks t be racist because ‘ they have no power.’ Multi culture is being foisted on oppressed and / or gullible masses. They have no say in what happens because this is not a democracy, it is an HYPOCRACY.

The current political culture will not resolve these problems. political correctness is not a solution, it is a smokescreen. I have never been a London Police officer, but I have taught in South London back in the 1970s , where I took the view that my young contemporary teachers were a nasty infection of know all patronising idiots. Policing mainly black pupils in the C Streams ( Pupils is an old fashioned word replaced by the aggrandising term, students now ) at Spencer Park Boy’s School, was near to impossible.

They were sowing the seeds of multi culture and open door migration which the lower class whites have to pay for. Working class whites are labelled racist chavs responsible for slavery,.

This pumps up the arrogance and egos of so called minorities, giving them a sense of entitlement and that whites must make way. It is interesting how a Baroness condemns all transsexuals as potential rapists, but one mustn’t draw nasty conclusions from this vile behaviour. South London was bad enough in my day. Now it is just another version of hell that the rich elite and white liberals are busy building , and want extended east to Ukraine and onwards to Russia. R J Cook

Police Law Unto Themselves –

Met Police officers may face charges over Whatsapp messages with Wayne Couzens

Flora Thompson

Three Metropolitan Police officers who worked with Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens could face charges over allegations they shared racist and misogynistic messages with him.

Prosecutors are considering a file of evidence referred by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) into the “alleged sending and sharing of inappropriate messages by police officers”.

Read More Met Police officers may face charges over Whatsapp messages with Wayne Couzens (msn.com)

February 11th 2022

Australia live news updates: NSW byelections loom for Perrottet; antivax protests…Arnold Schwarzenegger: Being a grandad is easy

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has resigned with “sadness and regret” after the Mayor of London said he had lost confidence in her leadership. Sadiq Khan’s comments come after the police have been plagued with a series of damaging scandals. But who will replace her? Here is a list of likely candidates.

Dame Cressida said she had been left with “no choice” but to resign after Mr Khan said he had lost confidence in her leadership.

Mr Khan said he was “not satisfied” with the Met chief’s response to the scale of change needed to tackle racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny in the Met.

Neil Basu

Neil Basu is a strong candidate to take over as commissioner. He is currently an assistant commissioner who previously worked as head of counter-terrorism.

Read More Cressida Dick resigns: The 7 most likely people to replace Met Police chief (msn.com)

Comment Neil Basu should get on very well with Sadiq Khan, they have much in common. There’s will be an interesting partnership if it happens. R J Cook

February 7th 2022

The London towns on direct opposite sides of the River Thames where there’s a £500k difference in house prices

Rachael Davis 

We all know how crazy London’s housing market is, but until you compare neighbouring areas it’s easy to miss how stark the contrast can be. For example, Brentford and Richmond are separated just by the River Thames, but house prices on the south side are double those on the north – despite being just a 15 minute drive apart.

Read More The London towns on direct opposite sides of the River Thames where there’s a £500k difference in house prices (msn.com)

The pretty commuter town 45 minutes from London that is home to some of the best schools in the country

Ben Kempton 

If you’re looking for the best education for your kids but still want to be a stone’s throw from London, this pretty commuter town might be the perfect place for you. Reigate in Surrey is only 45 minutes by train from London Bridge Station, and only half an hour to get to nearby Redhill.

Read More The pretty commuter town 45 minutes from London that is home to some of the best schools in the country (msn.com)

January 27th 2022

Anti-vaxxers storm Ealing vaccine centre accusing NHS staff of ‘genocide’

Josh Bolton 

A group of anti-vaxxers stormed a vaccination centre in Ealing accusing NHS staff of “genocide”.

In footage shared online, two men and a woman can be seen entering the site to demand it be shut down, incorrectly claiming that the Metropolitan Police are investigating the vaccines.

Upon entering, the conspiracy theorists claimed the centre was ‘the scene of a crime’ and demanded to speak to the manager.

Read More Anti-vaxxers storm Ealing vaccine centre accusing NHS staff of ‘genocide’ (msn.com)

Comment There clearly are issues with vaccines. They have serious side effects but are a source of profit to pharmaceuticals and doctors who inject them. They do not offer reliable protection or prevent the vaccinated from carrying infections. Masks and lockdowns don’t work. Death rates are low. Herdimmunity is the only solution and should have been tried by now.

The vulnerable groups should be aid to isolate. Britain’s encouragement and welcome for economic migrants requires the rich to pay more tax for new hospital capacity and GP training. Those at risk need educating about their lifestyle and pre existing health conditions. Meanwhile the economy and society need to get back to normal. There is only one normal. R J Cook

R ,J Cook 1963. R J Never gets colds and has never had the flu.

January 20th 2022

Hunt for ‘serial killer’ on the loose after animals found with their heads cut off in South London ‘lake of horror’

Charles Wade-Palmer & Ruby Gregory

Fears are growing over a suspected “serial killer” that is responsible for several animal decapitations and drownings taking place at a “lake of horror” in southeast London.

Wildlife rescuer Carly Ahlen believes the gruesome deaths of swans and foxes at Southmere Lake, Thamesmead can only have been done by a human.

Read More Hunt for ‘serial killer’ on the loose after animals found with their heads cut off in South London ‘lake of horror’ (msn.com)

Comment I moved from North London ( NW5 ) to South London ( SW3 ) to train as a teacher at Goldsmiths College and began my teaching career in that area, It was the late 1970s and quite feral even then – though I had the good fortune to be living in the basement flat of then Head of London Weekend TV Comedy Humphry Barclay. The contrast between this area and nearby Brixton was considerable.

I did my terms teaching practice at Spencer Park Boy’s School. It was an interesting and sometimes violent environment. i taught at other schools in the area and they were no better. I didn’t mind because it was more interesting than the job I had left with The Nitrate Corporation of Chile – where the top man was a Chilean General and there were interesting links with the British establishment.

So , from my experience, I am not surprised by this story above. Rachel Nickel was murdered in South London. The police framed hapless fantasist Colin Stagg for the killing, putting him on remand for over a year and telling all the newspapers he did it. Sarah Everard was abducted in South London by a member of an elite Metropolitan Police, raped and murdered.

When Charles Richardson was jailed in 1966, on World Cup Final Day, his gang broke up and black drug gangs moved in to fill the criminal space. When Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Brian Paddick brought in a ‘blind eye’ policy to the South London drugs trade, black parents were angry because they took this as not caring about them.

For all of its nice areas, getting better the further south you go away from the high density areas, the nicer it is. But there is something feral about so much of the south. Its origins were Saxon, not Roman. It feels different and was a prime location for the first black immigrants in 1948 , brought in to keep wages low.

I have known London since the 1950s. It wasn’t all peaceful then. My sister , parents and I were sitting outside a pub opposite Clissold Park in North London . It was a summer evening in 1959, when the Teddy Boys, carrying bicycle chains started massing for a gang fight. The police were lurking and ready for them.

There are extreme contrasts between wealth and poverty in this sprawling conurbation. I have seen most of it, as a truck driver, including working for a posh business that ‘dresses’ houses and apartments for millionaire prospective tenants. I have taught black kids with holes in their shoes, and worn out clothes.

I was at Vauxhall girls school when a pupil was stabbed following an argument about a boy. This latest episode is new to me. But deranged marginalised lonely Londoners are not. Nothing surprises me. I am just glad I backed out of my plan to be a London copper. Growing up watching Dixon of Dock Green had given me rather the wrong idea. London has always been a violent place. Call it multi culture if you like, but it is not to my liking for all of its marvels – including the world’s first underground railway. Sadly that is not a safe place to be, especially at night.

The London Underground Railway , I am going home from the theatre. It was the first in the world, the brainchild of a 19th century American to relieve London’s crippling traffic congestion. The picture below shows some of its amazing underground caverns and night travellers. But it is an increasingly dangerous place to be , especially at night time.

Two of us had been delivering all over London, from Saturday night until Sunday morning, with an 18 ton lorry in 2018. We were delivering to a restaurant by the River Thames when I paused to take this picture of Klink Street. The old prison is directly ahead. It was notorious, putting the name ‘Klink’ into the English language as a euphemism for jail.

Image Appleadene Photographics . R J Cook

January 13th 2022

London war graves broken in half and kicked over after officials ‘abandon’ them

London war graves in a Grade-I listed cemetery have been trashed and left abandoned and neglected, according to a former soldier who travels the country cleaning up military graves.

Read More London war graves broken in half and kicked over after officials ‘abandon’ them (msn.com)

January 9th 2022

London Covid: GP explains why some people keep getting infected and others never at all

Lauren Harte & Ben Kempton  


Novak Djokovic news LIVE: Tennis star faces crucial hearing to decide…Judas Priest won’t quit making albums

A GP has explained why some people seem to keep getting infected by Covid-19 while others never at all.

Read More London Covid: GP explains why some people keep getting infected and others never at all (msn.com)

The lost Roman town that’s now a London Underground station

Erica Buist  

Read More The lost Roman town that’s now a London Underground station (msn.com)


The Barbican must surely be a contender for the oddest spot in London.

‘He was not in a gang’: lives and deaths of 30 London teenage homicide victims

Nicola Slawson  


Covid live: limits on freedom in UK ‘last resort’, says health secretary; India…Remembering Betty White: a look at the longest TV career in history

London has recorded its highest ever level of teenage homicides in a single year after two boys were killed on Thursday.Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Read More ‘He was not in a gang’: lives and deaths of 30 London teenage homicide victims (msn.com)

Comment London, Mayor Khan and the Westminster political system are in denial about this problem. As for a mother saying her boy was not in a gang, she is hardly likely to have known one way or the other.

Many nice white liberals are bleating and screeching because J K Rowling has not been allowed to continue her vile hate speech against transsexuals, labelling them all as motivated by a desire to rape women. They claim the right free speech with a whole army of white media liberals amplifying the protest in the name of protecting women.

These ghastly people would apply no such exemptions for anyone pointing out that similar gang knife crime is matter of routine in areas like the African Congo. As appalling as Dick and her Metropolitan Police are , they have little chance of success here , because if they used anything like the old ‘sus’ laws, where 3 overtly suspicious acts justify stop and search, officers face losing their jobs or worse.

This problem has grown and is growing in step with mass economic migration. Words, like inclusive, multi culture and diversity won’t resolve this, but it makes the chattering classes, elite media and politicians feel good about themselves. R J Cook

Roberta Jane Cook December 2021

December 31st 2021

The tiny South East London railway line take takes just five mins to complete and could become part of the London Underground

Callum Marius  3 hrs agoLike3 Comments|6


Veteran US actress Betty White dies aged 99 – a month before her 100th birthdayRemembering Betty White: a look at the longest TV career in history

At just five minutes end-to-end, the one and a half mile-long Bromley North branch line is London’s shortest. Trains shuttle back and forth between its three stations at Bromley North, Sundridge Park and Grove Park and there is no direct service to any other station, although there is a track connecting the branch line to the rest of the Southeastern network.

Read More The tiny South East London railway line take takes just five mins to complete and could become part of the London Underground (msn.com)

Two more stabbings bring London to its worst ever teenage homicide death toll

Kevin Rawlinson and agency  


FTSE 100 rallies 14.3% in 2021, its best year since 2016 – business live30 of the best feel-good movies

London has recorded its worst ever annual death toll from teenage homicides after two boys were killed within an hour of each other in stabbing incidents, bringing the total to 30 for 2021.Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

A 15-year-old was stabbed and killed in south London and a 16-year-old in west London on Thursday, bringing the total beyond the 29 deaths recorded in 2008.

Read More Two more stabbings bring London to its worst ever teenage homicide death toll (msn.com)

Comment The Metropolitan Police have lost control of London , not entirely if at all their fault, due to the politically correct factors surrounding these crimes. One cannot say more. R J Cook

Roberta Jane Cook , December 29th 2021

The abandoned London Underground station that was closed because residents were too rich to use the Tube

Erica Buist  


Why seed-banking threatened species in Madagascar is vitalCall their agents! The hottest new TV stars of 2022

Of all the curiosities of Mayfair – and there are many – one we rarely think about is the pocket of emptiness beneath our feet, as we all whizz around each other in the land above.

What a strange thing an abandoned Tube station is, the stillness of it, and how much we’d all love to get down there are have a nose around.

Read More The abandoned London Underground station that was closed because residents were too rich to use the Tube (msn.com)

‘Beyond reckless’ driver going 83mph ‘flew 50m over Hayes roundabout’ and crashed into car ‘ruining’ passenger’s life

Seren Hughes  14 hrs agoLike53 Comments|20


Covid live news: thousands of flights cancelled as Omicron disrupts…Duchess of Cambridge: Praise for Kate’s piano skills at abbey carol concert

A “beyond reckless” driver was going at more than 83mph when he “flew 50m through the air across the entirety of a roundabout” in Hayes and crashed into another car “ruining a young man’s life”.

‘Beyond reckless’ driver going 83mph ‘flew 50m over Hayes roundabout’ and crashed into car ‘ruining’ passenger’s life (msn.com)

December 23rd 2021

Angry driver calls for London’s cyclists to be forced to wear ID numbers

Ian Molyneaux  8 hrs agoLike109 Comments|56


Covid news live: Omicron carries lower hospitalisation risk, studies suggest…Ed Sheeran intends to prioritise his family over his career

petition calling for cyclists and e-scooter riders to display visible identification, among other restrictions, has been rejected by the Government.

Read More Angry driver calls for London’s cyclists to be forced to wear ID numbers (msn.com)

Tottenham Court Road London, cyclists cutting in front of traffic, 2019.
Image Appledene Photographics / R J Cook

UK Lockdown: New Year’s Eve could be cancelled as Boris Johnson ‘plans new restrictions in next 48 hours’

Lisa Haseldine  


Covid news live: Omicron carries lower hospitalisation risk, studies suggest…Ed Sheeran intends to prioritise his family over his career

Brits could see their New Year’s Eve plans cancelled for a second year in a row as new Covid restrictions could be unveiled in as little as 48 hours, The Daily Mail reported.

In response to the rapid surge in Covid cases across the UK, it has been reported that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering new restrictions for the period immediately after Christmas.

Read More UK Lockdown: New Year’s Eve could be cancelled as Boris Johnson ‘plans new restrictions in next 48 hours’ (msn.com)

December 18th 2021

Videos of LONELEY IN LONDON Furies

bing.com/videosWatch video1:44‘I am sorry’ Cressida Dick says Couzens has ‘brought shame’ on police932 views2 months agoYouTubeEvening Standard

Comment Dick was responsible for the death of an innocent Brazilian. The Fascist Police bring shame on themselves. How many more perverts like Couzens in waiting and appalling senior officers with the right stuff, liars who excel at covering up theirs and other cop crimes. I am sick of them and their pathetic media lackeys. The police killed Sarah Everard , not all men. R J Cook

Lonely In London – The Fureys And Davey Arthur | Shazam

https://www.shazam.com/track/61468622/lonely-in-london

Lonely In London – The Fureys And Davey Arthur | Shazam. Lonely In London. The Fureys And Davey Arthur. Singer/Songwriter. 8 Shazams. PLAY FULL SONG. Get up to 3 

Sadiq Khan declares ‘major incident’ in London as coronavirus cases rise

Telegraph reporters  3 hrs agoLike|61


Covid live: UK reports more than 90,000 new cases; WHO says Omicron spreads…The Matrix Resurrections is longest of the series

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has declared a “major incident” in the capital due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Read More Sadiq Khan declares ‘major incident’ in London as coronavirus cases rise (msn.com)

Comment Bus & Tube services, failing NHS, record homelessness , corrupt expensive un accountable feral police, rising rents, ever inflated house prices, home to a corrupt government , racism, drugs, booze and ever more gang crime, so life in London is full of excitement and uncertainty. Now we have the everlasting Covid Crisis guaranteed to drive the crowds wild. Thanks Mr Khan. Keep up the stirring speeches bringing us all together.

R J Cook

St Paul’s Cathedral viewed from the South Bank of the River Thames.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
— Samuel JohnsonBoswell and Johnson were discussing whether or not Boswell’s affection for London would wear thin should he choose to live there, as opposed to the zest he felt on his occasional visits. (Boswell lived in Scotland, and visited only periodically. Some people are surprised to learn that Boswell and Johnson were far from inseparable over the last twenty years of Johnson’s life, the period Boswell knew him.)This discussion happened on September 20, 1777, and Johnson, someone who hated to spend time alone, was always going out and enjoying what London had to offer.For more of what Johnson had to say about London, click here.For more of what he had to say about city life, click here.

Videos of Lonely In London Song

bing.com/videos4:57

Christina Perri – The Lonely (Live In London) Full Song – HD quality

Videos of streets of london

bing.com/videos4:09

Streets of London “Ralph McTell”

December 16th 2021

London Underground passengers spot big fault on Northern Line

‘Going home is such a ride’ Dori Previn. Brunette Roberta on the platform some years ago. Tube has got much worse in her opinion.

Seren Hughes  


Read More London Underground passengers spot big fault on Northern Line (msn.com)

Dory Previn – Going Home (Mythical Kings and Iguanas …

Suggestion over removal of firefighters’ right to strike sparks angerKim Kardashian shares texts from nephew about online safety

London Underground passengers have spotted a big fault on the Northern Line, and it’s causing confusion.

December 12th 2021

DWP staff drank and ate takeaways ‘late into evening’ during lockdown (thelondoneconomic.com)

The London Underground station where nobody knew where the Tube trains were going for almost a month

Callum Marius  


Talks continue talks on £1.9billion TfL funding gap as £4bn government…BT Sport’s Jules Breach: ‘Gone are the days when female presenters are…

Transport for London (TfL) has warned in recent weeks about the possibility of going into ‘managed decline’, a worst-case scenario where only essential work is carried out and no improvements to the network are made.

Read More The London Underground station where nobody knew where the Tube trains were going for almost a month (msn.com)

I was pretending to be a brunette when a male friend took this picture of me returning late night from the West End Theatre. I wish I was still that thin. London developed the world’s first Metropolitan Railway underground system. Since Thatcher’s privatisation, profit has come first. R J Cook.

December 9th 2021

The long forgotten London Underground line that once stretched as far as halfway to Birmingham

Charlie Lawrence-Jones  


Ireland to raise concerns with UK over border demands for non-Irish…‘Doom metal’ organist’s Paris show cancelled amid Catholic protests

As Londoners we get to enjoy one of the best public transport systems in the world.

Read More The long forgotten London Underground line that once stretched as far as halfway to Birmingham (msn.com)

The London borough where the council makes a staggering £29,000 every day by slapping drivers with parking tickets

Finn Byrne  


Australia news live update: eight new Omicron infections in NSW as Covid…Jennifer Aniston: I’m prone to agoraphobia

One borough council in London makes a staggering average of £29,000 a day through handing out parking charge notices.

Islington Borough Council gives out an average of over 600 tickets a day to motorists, which means they rake in an average of £10.8m a year.

It earns double that of Manchester Council and seven times the amount that Sheffield Council makes in the same period.

READ MORE: London Underground: Driverless Tube trains is a ‘fantasy’ that ‘can’t and won’t happen’

December 7th 2021

Tube strike is ‘reckless and leaves Londoners without safe route home’, says London Assembly member

Joe Talora  


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Disruption to the newly reopened Night Tube as a result of strikes is “reckless” and will “leave many Londoners without a safe route home”, campaigners say.

Read More Tube strike is ‘reckless and leaves Londoners without safe route home’, says London Assembly member (msn.com)

December 5th 2021

Going Underground In London

Harrow , 2012

December 4th 2021

Paddington Station, late 1950s , gateway to the west, built by Brunel’s Great Western Railway.

Norway hits back at ‘ungrateful’ Londoners over spindly Christmas tree

William Cole For Mailonline  


Chris Cuomo fired by CNN for helping brother Andrew fight sexual misconduct…Strictly Come Dancing 2021: quarter-final – as it happenedMailOnline logo© Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo

Norwegians have hit back at criticism of their annual Christmas tree gift to Britain after Londoners described it as ‘scrawny’ and ‘half dead’.

Bemused visitors to Trafalgar Square have been expressing their disappointment after the famous tree arrived in the capital looking a bit worse for wear. 

Read More Norway hits back at ‘ungrateful’ Londoners over spindly Christmas tree (msn.com)

American tourists slam London’s iconic Brick Lane Market as ‘too pushy’ and say the food is ‘worse than a supermarket’

Alexandra Bullard  


Priti Patel’s plan to offshore refugees is costly, wrong and doomed to failStrictly week 11 recap: Rhys Stephenson impresses as John Whaite and AJ…

London is a watering hole for tourists, especially American holidaymakers who regularly travel across the pond to visit their close ally.

One of the most iconic landmarks that London offers is Brick Lane Market, and it’s a must-see attraction for locals and tourists alike.

Read More American tourists slam London’s iconic Brick Lane Market as ‘too pushy’ and say the food is ‘worse than a supermarket’ (msn.com)

How much a London bus actually costs and why they’re more expensive than Ferraris

Callum Marius  


Penelope Jackson appeals against murder verdict claiming media footage…Will there be a season 6 of Money Heist? Has Money Heist finished?

Most of us have a pretty good idea on how much is acceptable to pay for an old banger of a vehicle that you might want to use as a run around, but few of us know the price of the public transport many of us take every day.

Read More How much a London bus actually costs and why they’re more expensive than Ferraris (msn.com)

London invented the underground railway, thanks to an American. This is Oxford Circus , late night , 2015. R J Cook is going home from a night at the theatre. Image R J Cook Appledene Photographics R J Cook
London’s original Routemaster Buses are popular as wedding transport and other events, seen here at their High Wycombe depot.
Image R J Cook Appledene Photographics , 2014

This London bridge is the most bashed in the capital and locals aren’t surprised

Tara O’Connor  15


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The news that a bridge in Wimbledon is the most crashed into in London came as no surprise to long-suffering locals.

Network Rail last year recorded 10 crashes at the bridge in Lower Downs Road.

These were just the incidents reported and neighbours estimate it may be higher with vans getting into trouble three times a week.

Charlie, 51, who lives near the bridge, said: “I’ve been here seven years and in that time they have put up extra signs.

Read On This London bridge is the most bashed in the capital and locals aren’t surprised (msn.com)

December 2nd 2021

London tower block on posh street bulldozed just 9 years after it was built

Robert Firth  


Flats overlooking a South London beauty spot that were built less than a decade ago are to be demolished because they’re too dangerous to live in.

Four blocks of 80 flats on the e

dge of Peckham Rye will be bulldozed and replaced with 91 flats in new buildings.

Work to finish the construction of the current apartments only finished between 2009 and 2011 but they have been plagued by damp, mould and safety problems since their completion.

Read More London tower block on posh street bulldozed just 9 years after it was built (msn.com)

December 2nd 2021

Map shows Met Police stations sold off for £131 million in bid to save cash

Josiah Mortimer  19 hrs agoLike13 Comments|6


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The Met Police has raked in over £131m since the pandemic began by selling off police stations, MyLondon can reveal.

The “fire sale” of locals stations has triggered concerns over the future of policing in London.

In March, West End Central Police Station – located in swanky Savile Row – sold for a whopping £56m.

Read More Map shows Met Police stations sold off for £131 million in bid to save cash (msn.com)

The London Underground line that could end up with 68-year-old trains

Callum Marius  


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In the past few weeks, Mayor Sadiq Khan has been vehemently warning anyone who will listen that if Transport for London (TfL) doesn’t get the funding it needs to plug a £2billion funding gap from December 11, London’s transport system is set to enter a period of difficulty it hasn’t seen for decades.

Read More The London Underground line that could end up with 68-year-old trains (msn.com)