By Clare Macnaughton, author of A Modern Military Mother - Tales from the Domestic Frontline My 11 year old son is desperate to play the video game 'Grand Theft Auto'. Some of his mates, of the same age, are allowed to play it. I have strictly forbidden it, for various reasons, but I have specifically stated the main reason is that the game is disrespectful to women. In GTA it is possible for the characters to pistol whip a prostitute. This is...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic  The food system is broken, NFESH President, Founder and CEO Enid Borden told me in a brief email exchange in response to my article on food waste. Highlighting the origins of food and the way in which our supermarket shelves are stocked I attempted to bring to light some of the big issues discussed in Omnivore’s Dilemma which is as harrowing a read as anything Stephen King or Dean Koontz could muster up but unfortunately housed in...

Sport News 24/7 By Rob Latham A clash between Chelsea and Bolton Wanderers was commonplace in the Premier League for over a decade, but in the seasons since Wanderers relegation, things have changed dramatically. The Blues have become European champions and favourites for this season’s title, while The Trotters have drifted into obscurity to linger in the lower reaches of the Championship table. Tonight’s trip to Stamford Bridge in the Capital One Cup third round is therefore now a huge...

Kennington is the place where people change tube lines, most commuters will know the name but very little about it, which is surprising as it is so close to central London - only two minutes to Waterloo on Northern Line. The housing stock is good, it is next to the Oval Cricket ground and Cleaver Square is beautiful. The Prince of Wales pub which is nestles in the corner of Cleaver Square is where the infamous Richardson gang used to hang...

Brixton really isn’t what it was, instead of a Rasta offering you drugs outside the tube station, you are more likely to find a cello player busking for money. Brixton is now a Clapham overspill, check out the patrons of the Dog Star on Friday night and you could easily be on Clapham High Street. It is one of the few areas in south London on the tube and gentrification was inevitable. Some locals even attacked the new Foxtons branch when...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic London isn’t the birthplace of gin, but it’s the closest thing it has to a home. For London Dry is responsible for finding gin a bedfellow in the shape of tonic, a mix that has become internationally renowned and is, in part, responsible for the spirit’s global rise amongst peers such as whisky and vodka. But despite being a symbolic home, London Dry is rarely made in London these days. The East...

By Anna Power @KitNapz Ida is a profoundly moving, visually mesmerizing coming of age tale, steeped in the shadowy secrecy of post-holocaust, Poland.   At eighteen, Ida, a novitiate, is about to take her vows but before doing so, her mother superior asks her to spend some time with her only relative, long-lost, estranged aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza). Ida dutifully, albeit reluctantly, complies only to discover the truth of her own Jewish identity – her real name is Ida Lebenstein,...

By Harry Bedford, Music Editor Underneath the arches of the viaduct adjacent to Leeds Railway Station stands the remains of a legendary music venue, Leeds’ own Cavern Club. It may only have been there 20 years and may not have been that well known outside the city, but this dark and dingy building was the epicentre of the Leeds music scene. I remember my first night there, I had just turned 18 and my brother and I went to see...

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has launched a Speak Up campaign encouraging financial services industry firms to adopt a Speak Up policy for whistleblowers. New research has found there is overwhelming support for introducing US-style whistleblower incentives to the UK. When asked whether the UK should offer rewards to encourage reporting of wrongdoing by companies, as is the case in the US, 46 per cent of respondents were strongly in favour of the idea while 38 per...