Latest authored BBC story: Margaret Thatcher art posters banned from Tube

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Portrait by Ben Moore

Posters of Margaret Thatcher due to be shown at Westminster Tube station have been banned by advertising bosses.

Six portraits of the former prime minister, including a depiction of her as Queen Victoria, were due to run from this week.

CBS Outdoor, which sells advertising space across the London Underground, said running them would break Transport for London (TfL) guidelines.

Former Culture Secretary David Mellor said it was a “stupid situation”.

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Latest BBC feature: Musicians audition for Tube busking licences

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Ben Hudson

I told Ben Hudson ‘You look like a young Michael Hutchence’. He said ‘Who’s he?’.

The sound of No Woman, No Cry emanates from a disused platform at Charing Cross Underground station as weekend engineering works are announced and a man plays scales on a bamboo flute.

It’s the last audition day for performers hoping to gain the busking licences for the Tube which were first made available 10 years ago.

Over three weeks, 250 people have played for a panel of three – sometimes including record company professionals – hoping to join the 350 performers who try to entertain commuters. There are up to 100 licences available.

Continue reading here and see my gallery of pictures here.

Latest BBC feature: Tottenham MP wants security review in face of extremism

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For the second time this season Tottenham Hotspur fans have been attacked abroad in what appears to be a racially-motivated incident.

Three Spurs supporters received minor injuries in a bar in the French city of Lyon on the eve of their side’s Europa League tie.

In November, one fan was seriously injured and several were hurt in a clash ahead of a Lazio game in Rome.

Questions are now being asked about the security around the north London club, which has a historic Jewish association.

‘Deeply worrying’

Up to 50 masked people attacked the Smoking Dog Pub at about 22:00 CET on Wednesday, smashing windows and throwing objects. Fans were hurt by flying glass.

Former Met officer Chris Hobbs said any club could have been targeted

Eyewitnesses said the attackers entered the pub doing Nazi salutes.

David Lammy, Labour MP for Tottenham, has now called for a careful review of security around Spurs supporters travelling abroad for games.

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BBC feature: Canal community recalls Gemma McCluskie body part trail

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Regent's Canal took on a "macabre atmosphere" with the knowledge that body parts were still to be found, said one resident

Regent’s Canal took on a “macabre atmosphere” with the knowledge that body parts were still to be found, said one resident

On 6 March last year a human torso was discovered in London’s Regent’s Canal.

Following the macabre find, people living, walking, working and kayaking in the area knew there were two arms, two legs and a head yet to be discovered – possibly by them.

It was six months before the final part of Gemma McCluskie’s body – her head – was found in the canal in Hackney, east London, as revealed in graphic detail during the murder trial of her brother.

One resident of Kingsland Basin said he was having breakfast on his balcony when the discovery was made and there was a commotion among people on the barges below.

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SINK Lit: The Uninvited Third Person

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The first in a series of Single Income No Kid observations

BoredBaby

One of the unforeseen consequences of a friend having a baby is that you will never again have their undivided attention.

You will never be able to chat about work over a coffee or men over a bottle.

No, a baby ushers in the era of the Uninvited Third Person.

“So we decided that she really should have the operation,” you say as you and your friend and U3P walk along a country lane.

“Did you drop your glovie? Did you drop your glovie?” comes your friend’s high pitched, less-than-considered response.

Er, no, you answer in your head. And what’s that got to do with pacemakers?

“Yes, you did. Shall we find it?”

The 2ft gatecrasher grins up at you. He has robbed you of her attention because his glove is of a thousand times more consequence than your mother’s cardiac arrhythmias.

It just wasn’t 15 months ago.

Your harried friend whose life now revolves around poo and food fights the latest fire, retrieving said small glove from 10 feet behind.

She tries to remember what you were talking about but she can’t and so fills you in on how the better gloves which attach to his coat are in the wash.

Oh that’s good to know. I’ll pass it on to the cardio nurse.

The other unforeseen outcome of a friend having a baby is the Uninvited Fourth Person – your friend’s husband.

Such is the burden of childcare that to keep up with the poo/food demands two parents often have to be in the room at the same time.

But there can be few things worse for a single girl than discussing her love-life with smug marrieds and their child.

“So he said he didn’t know what he was doing right now with his life and wasn’t looking to be with someone,” you confide.

“Oh forget him. He’s a tool. He’s just after a shag,” says U4P as he retrieves Piggy from the log basket.

But U4P hasn’t chatted about men with you for 14 years. He doesn’t know the drill.

He doesn’t know that we’re supposed to analyse the “tool”, consider the predicament thoroughly and resolve that a better one is out there somewhere.

Now is not the time for the brutal black and white of Planet Man, especially from the man wearing my friend’s wedding ring.

I look to my friend for her input.

“Have you lost your sockie?” she says.

I look forward to the day we lose the interlopers.

I just hope we’re not both so old and barmy by then that our time is spent throwing off our own gloves and socks and trying to remember who the other one is.

 

BBC feature: Couples take last unusual date of the century

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Register offices across the country have reported an increase in wedding bookings as couples choose to marry on a day with special significance.

Thursday is the last day of the century when the date, month and year match.

Fifty-one ceremonies were booked in the district of Gretna in southern Scotland, which is well known for Gretna Green – a 25-fold increase on the same day last year.

It will be just over 88 years before 01/01/2101 comes around.

In Gloucestershire, west England, 12 ceremonies were due. The number of weddings on an average Wednesday is one.

Continue reading here.

My lesson in Chinese wisdom appears on photography website

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Someone once told me ‘What you see is what you are’, taken in London’s Chinatown by Mario Cacciottolo

In the summer I had the privilege of meeting a student from Taiwan studying Shakespeare in London called Juan Hung Yu.

We spent a lot of time discussing the experiences we had had as foreigners in each other’s countries. Her impressions of England were of a place where everybody is very polite. Like me in China, she had been shown terrific kindness by strangers.

She loved the variety of historical and cultural pursuits on offer and spent her time dashing between debates, recitals, museums and performances.

In short, as I had been in China, she was hooked on England. It was under her skin. But I pointed out that few in England appreciate how lucky they are, and most, in fact, moan about their lot.

“Xiang you xin shen,” she said.(It should be ‘xin’, not ‘xing’ as I wrote it down in pinyin). She explained it means ‘image from heart born’, that what you see is what you are. If you see the world and think it is fabulous, with many opportunities, it’s because you are.

When I was asked if I had something that someone once told me that I would like to add to Mario Cacciatollo’s beautiful photography website, it came to me straight away.

See the Someone Once Told Me page here.