Good afternoon - it's Friday and, as I craft this missive, Salma is poised to slip off into the bright autumn air and head for an assignation about which she is very excited. I could tell you more but then I'd have to kill you - exclusives, you know. Anyway, by way of a predictable tribute to that all important sliver of scrumptiousness that is What Not To Miss, she has promised she will be back in time to craft it, as only she can - or so she says. I offered, believe me, I offered but she was having none of it. Possession may, for most of us, be nine tenths of the law but for Salma it is absolute. When I suggested I could help out, the look in her eyes pierced me like a bolt of electricity. I was left in no doubt.
As will more of London's villains be, given the latest deployment by the Met's Quartermasters. They are rolling out Tasers to more cops beyond the well trained specialists of CO19 which, we suspect, many of you will think is a jolly good idea. Indeed we will be asking for your e-mails and text messages on that very subject. But do first listen to our report at 6 and reflect on the deaf man in America who didn't hear what the police were ordering him to do so was horribly zapped and the Stateside guy with a weak heart but for whom the strength of his heart is a fatal irrelevance since he too was Tasered. It's up to you, of course. Phil is paying the electricity bill for you and warning you to keep your hands dry and not touch any appliances until they are.
On the other hand, and balance is even more important to us than exclusives, had there been even more cops about and had they had Tasers, Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba might still be alive.
The ghastly tale of how a simple request for quiet cost him his life with the only upside, the outcome in court today. Ronke calls for order at 6.
The bus strike went away but the wind and the rain didn't so our transport system still fell victim to the unpredictable today. We sometimes talk about the straw that broke the camels back but tonight we have the twig that shattered the railways ability to cope. Marcus says it was quite a big twig and he does live in the country so he may know what he is talking about. My own view is unprintable but, suffice to say, some of the excuses our railways fall back upon to explain their inept, incompetent inability to run a celebratory event in an ale manufacturing emporium would need the most powerful electro-microscope to see and the sanctity of Mother Teresa to believe. But it's only a thought.
My 9 year old son's total disinterest in the film The Golden Compass is also difficult to believe though Salma thinks it is because he believes it is an "either or" dilemma with Fred Claus. I'll do both!
Anyway,James will be here to give me and you his own reasons for seeing or ignoring TGC and another cinematic offering, You Kill Me.
I just hope not too many recently taser-equipped cops go to see it before they have totally mastered the contraption.
Now, imagine you have driven all the way out to Reading for the Festival and you are carefully slotting your pride and joy between a big fat off-roader and a sliver of a sportscar.
Careful! Slow! Right a bit.. suddenly, a band strikes up, there and then, in the car park. Let's face it, you are likely to crash into one if not both of them. Imperial Leisure are a band who think that sort of thing is very funny and, to be frank, so do I. Steve tries to make sense of the senseless antics and the entirely peripatetic performance schedule of one of London's most exciting new musical offerings.
They may appear on Robin's weather maps or on tonight's front pages - you'll have to tune in to find out.
Now that I have drunk my tea and eaten my chocolate, do I sneak in and knock off an anarchic version of WNTM? Do I feel a bit like the late Ian Smith of Rhodesian infamy? Should I make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence and just go for it?
You'll just have to watch to see who wins this battle of wills.
That and more, at 6
Alastair & Salma.
Meantime, a word from The Boss -
A quick P.S. from the Editor..
Eagle eyed viewers will have spotted a Christmas tree in our GMTV bulletins this morning. Don't be surprised when it vanishes again at 6pm tonight! Christmas starts much earlier on GMTV than it does on London Tonight. It's not that I'm Scrooge-like (I've already got my tree up at home..) it's just that, for me, it doesn't quite feel right to have the tree up at six-o-clock until a bit later in the month. Anyway, if you don't get up in time to watch GMTV, then you'll have to wait a week or so to see it. It's blue - and thanks to our friends at John Lewis for lending us a tree again this year. Who knew you could get a tree in ITV blue?! Anyway, just thought you'd like to know why it's there one minute, gone the next....
