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London is apparently to be visited shortly by UNESCO - or possibly their representatives on earth, ICOMOS, the 'International Council on Monuments and Sites' -  who are to determine whether the world heritage sites of the Palace of Westminster and Tower of London are 'at risk'. At risk from what, you ask?  Flood, fire, dodgy foundations or inappropriate interior decoration? No - at risk from that great curse of the big modern world: big modern buildings.  There is anxiety, it seems, that large-scale new development may be taking over our world city (that's our world city, by the way, not UNESCO's) and ruining its unspoilt Norman (or should that be Victorian plus Victorian sham-Norman knock-off) cityscape. The UK has signed up to international treaties, promising to look after our heritage, so UNESCO and ICOMOS do have a legitimate locus, and on the face of it they are only doing their job in coming to London.  But like so many in the heritage industry, once t...

The bookies have Boris Johnson as favourite to win next May's election for London Mayor, but his predecessor Ken Livingstone is not so far behind, and a lot could change between now and then (especially if Ken manages to stop comparing Boris with Hitler ).  Assuming the coalition government remains in power, there is the prospect, by this time next year, of a Labour Mayor in conflict both with Tory councils at a local level and with a Tory minister at the Communities department at the national level.  The Mayor has a power - used at least once by Boris Johnson - to 'call in' big planning applications for his own decision where he doesn't like the local authority's view; and the Communities Secretary has a similar power at the national level.  The power resides in the Mayor personally, not the GLA. Livingstone has never been averse to provocative political point-scoring. He proved himself surprisingly pro-development last time around, and it is not hard to imagine h...