RISHI MAKES IT RAIN

This week’s edition comes 15 years and two days after the enormous high of London winning the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and then the massive low, one day later, when 52 people lost their lives as a result of terrorist bombings on the transport system on 7/7.

FDR OR... FD-BLAH?

We don’t normally start LDN with an obituary, but this week we make an exception.

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

In the space of the last 24 hours, two famous London buildings and institutions have made the news, providing a fascinating contrast.

GETTING CLOSER 

Our commentary over the last few weeks has mainly and rightly been about how we all feel – whether about the empty streets of central London or Black Lives Matter.  Like many, we now feel it is time for action. 

PROTESTS AMID A PANDEMIC

Last week I wrote about the shock of seeing London’s West End deserted on a sunny Saturday morning in late May.

A PHASE TWO SUMMER

With everyone keen to see the pandemic consigned to the past, the economy restarted and the achievement of a ‘new normal’ that is better than the old one, this has been a week of contradictions (and much political point-scoring).

A CITY RUN BY COMMITTEE?

First comes the crisis, and then come the committees – or in this case we’ve got two new Boards, on top of a Group, a Partnership and a couple of Taskforces, all to tackle COVID-19 in London. Let’s hope some of the additional bureaucracy proves a boon to the wider economy and not just the market value of red tape.

BITTER BAILOUT? ...

Today, no new cases of COVID-19 were reported in London. Tomorrow and the next day? Who knows. A crisis forces us to think in days and weeks rather than months and years.

POWERING THROUGH

As communications experts, we're not sure we would have advised the Prime Minster to brief the nation a full news cycle before setting out the background detail, but it has meant that, like most of you, we have spent the first half of the week getting to grips with the ‘roadmap’ and the latest guidance.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

In an alternate universe the team at LCA would have been getting inordinately excited about tomorrow’s Mayoral and London Assembly election, while preparing briefings and blogs to analyse the results and wondering if it was going to be Sadiq’s day as expected.

ZOOMING THROUGH THE LOCKDOWN?

In week six of lockdown (and as illustrated by this edition's stories) everyone's focus is starting to shift to the horizon. What does London’s exit from lockdown look like anyway, in terms of its timing, process and outcomes?

THE FIVE STAGES OF LOCKDOWN?

If there is such a thing as the five stages of lockdown, it feels very much like we have made it through the first (denial?), are almost beyond the second (scramble?) and are now approaching the third (adjustment?).