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February
A Stadium's Tale: Cup Final Goes West 24th February 2006
Who's to balme for Wembley Farce?
When Wembley’s twin towers came tumbling down I must confess to a yelp of glee – I thought it would mean that my then boyfriend wouldn’t be distracted away to umpteen England matches, or trips to watch finals or ‘play-offs’ his team weren’t even involved in. However, my joy was short-lived as he started swanning off to Cardiff and other far-flung destinations instead. Now the boyfriend and the twin towers are long gone – so has my aversion to the beautiful game (that’s what they call it right?).

The five years without a cup match or an international in the city, whilst the new Wembley is being constructed, has been tough for the city’s legions of football fans. This week’s announcement by Multiplex – the firm building the stadium - that it won’t be ready for the FA cup final in May was the final straw of ineptitude in a saga to rival even the Millennium Dome. The blame laying is yet to begin in earnest; in the dock are the Government, Brent Council, the FA, Multiplex and the building sub-contractors.

While successive Tory and Labour governments stuck there oar in, they did end up donating £120 million to the cause in the form of a lottery grant, on the proviso that Wembley could be used for athletics. You would think they’d have to give the money back as athletics are not a part of the new Wembley, but they handed back a paltry £20 million. The government are guilty of misappropriation of public money, but not much else. Brent Council decided to take advantage of the situation demanding £30 million to sort out the area around the site in return for planning permission. But you can’t blame them really, with the government dishing out millions willy-nilly. The FA isn’t without blame, but once all the arguments were over, and all the decisions made, what could they have done other than sign a contract with a construction firm? They are set to lose out in a big way if all the summer’s planned concerts are called off.

That leaves us with Multiplex who agreed to build the stadium on a fixed contract that will leave them at least £75 million worse off. Quite how a company of such reputed proficiency could miscalculate so spectacularly is beyond me. Throughout the project they’ve been disingenuous, but their claims last month that there was a 70% chance the stadium would not be ready in time for the FA cup final were simply discourteous. Did they shrewdly forecast a 30% chance of a miracle? After being unable to maintain decent relationships with any of their subcontractors, now they’re trying to shove some of their losses on to the FA. It’s hard to feel sorry for a company whose investors have probably got bags of money already. They probably won’t make a profit this year. Boo hoo.

My sympathies lie with the 90,000 Take That fans, now firmly in their mid-twenties, who spent a nerve wracking few hours on the phone desperately trying to get tickets, whilst trying to conceal the fact from mocking housemates. Here in London we’ll spend another year without the football showcase and stadium concerts. It’s not the end of the world, but let’s hope lessons can be learnt for the Olympics – if we’re late on that one we can’t just send everyone off to Cardiff and wait till next year.
Galloway Gets Legless
Celebrity Big Brother contestant (oh, and MP), George Galloway, took time out from crawling around on all fours in the manner of frisky feline to take part in a three-legged race for children's charities at Westminster School this month. He lost that race too.
Joel Gives Up-Town a Whirl
Pop veteran Billy Joel’s smash hit Broadway musical ‘Movin' Out’ is movin’ up-town (girl) into London’s West End next month. The show will premiere at the Apollo Victoria theatre on March 28th, before movin’ on to its European tour.
Parking Pariahs Named and Shamed
Westminster Council has published details of its 10 worst parking offenders. Top of the parking blacklist is a white van which has accumulated 250 unpaid tickets in the City of Westminster alone.
2009
2008
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January is on the Horizon
20th December
Merry Christmas
26th November
All The World's A Stage
20th November
Surviving the Crunch
24th October
Boris v Jingjing
17th October
Soaps in Pole Position
23rd September
Chips too Chavvy for Chelsea
16th September
The London Restaurant Awards
26th August
No Smoking, No Ducks, No Barbecues
20th August
The Olympics
24th July
Sandwiched Out
17th July
The Show Ain't Over 'Til the Fat Lady's on Page 3
26th June
Love All at Wimbledon
16th June
Miller Puts the Heat on Tennant
27th May
Booze Banned on Buses
20th May
Same Again?
23rd April
By George
11th April
Back to the 80s
28th March
How do You Solve A Problem Like Medea?
20th March
Flight Fantastic
20th February
Dark, Satanic Turnmills
6th February
A Diamond in the Drink
21st January
People Wanted for Plinth
14th January
Boo! Hiss!
2007
28th December
Tate That - A Hirst for Art
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Christmas Shopping
27th November
Mind the Gap
26th November
London On A Tray
26th October
Leaving the Station
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The Sky's the Limit
26th September
The Play Within A Play
19th September
Fashion, Frocks and Celeb Shocks
12th September
Saying Tanks for the Mammaries
24th August
Heathrow under Siege
17th August
Gormless
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Losing Face
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Are We Reaching Boiling Point Yet This Summer?
13th July
Red Ken versus Blonde Boris
22nd June
Last Orders at the Fag Machine
11th June
London the Musical
21st May
What Lurks Beneath
10th May
The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
27th April
London’s Walk on the Wild Side
20th April
Stand Behind the Yellow Line
13th April
Like Water for Chocolate
23rd March
So, Another Magazine
16th March
Avoiding iContact
23rd February
Sex and Art...
16th February
C-Charge Protest Fails to Bring Down Government
9th February
Live Earth London
26th January
A Vote for Shilpa is a Vote for Britain
18th January
Carriage on up the West End
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Food for Thought
22nd December
A Poisonous Marketing Campaign
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In for a Penny, In for Five Pounds
17th November
Big Department Stores Leave Santa Out in the Cold
10th November
Failing to Save the World
27th October
Frozen Prawns and Melting Icecaps
20th October
Predatory Pelicans and Happy Woodland Folk
13th October
Hope at last for east end of Oxford Street
16th September
Lite the Blue Paper and Stand Well Back
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Of Poles and Twiglets
25th August
Free Fares For the Fat and the Fashionable
11th August
London Friendly
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Archway To Organic Heaven
21st July
London - Celebrity Frat House
7th July
Out of the Galleries into the Streets
23rd June
Mayors, Nightmares and Marias
16th June
Downright Rude in Paris and London
9th June
Enter the Inferno
26th May
Curvaceous Border
12th May
Vegging Out
21st April
The Camden Crawl
17th April
Down the Pan
13th April
I Want to Break Free
9th April
Big Brother seems to have been left in a bar somewhere
7th April
Don't Box Me In
24th March
Political Correctness Reaches New Heights
24th February
A Stadium's Tale: Cup Final Goes West
17th February
Modern Musicals are Rubbish
10th February
The City-Side Alliance
20th January
February Sales
20th January
Moby Sick
13th January
Glass Half Full
3rd January
Three Cheers for the Tube Station Workers
2005
22nd December
January Bites
16th December
A Remarkable Year
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And a Partridge in a JCB
11th November
Driving Miss Sadie
4th November
Spam, Spam, Spammity-Spam, Shakespeare, Zorro, Chico and Rasputin
28th October
Trick or Treat?
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We Don't Mind a Little Delay...
14th October
Final Resting Place for Young British Artists
16th September
Just a small urn for me, please barman
9th September
DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!
2nd September
The Free Tenor
30th August
Samba Rhythms Breaking Out All Over The Stadium
20th August
Getting Behind the Iron Farce
10th August
Mystery Play is No Sell Out
29th July
Moving On From 7/7
22nd July
Get loaded in the park
15th July
Victoire!!
24th June
New Balls, Please
17th June
The End of an Unsightly Era
10th June
The Hooded Law
31st May
Widespread Diso-’Beeb’-ience
20th May
Pass the Pepper Spray
20th May
Black Theatre Breakthrough
27th April
Five More Years
20th April
Dancing with Idiots
12th April
A Youthful Look at the Theatre
30th March
Musical Communion
23rd March
Big Guns Back in Town
10th March
Celebs in the City
28th February
There's no business like showbusiness!
22nd February
Ken You Believe It?
10th February
Make Poverty History
28th January
Loving It!
21st January
The Great West End Ticketing Scandal
14th January
The Triumph of the Ordinary
2004
30th December
Party Pooper
23rd December
The Second Battle of Trafalgar
16th December
Sadie's Year
28th November
Ripper-Watch
21st November
Kinky Boots
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Smoked out
22nd October
Yuppie Meal
15th October
Fines of Fury
8th October
No Twist in the Turner
17th September
Battleships, bloodsports and Batman
10th September
Clique Week
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Return of the Bard
20th August
Politics Takes Centre Stage
13th August
Crisis in Theatreland
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Journey's End
23rd July
Healing Waters
16th July
Mandela Statue in Doubt
9th July
From Art to Ashes
2nd July
One Hurdle Nearer to Gold
 
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