Happy New Year, especially to everyone who got a subscription to London Centric as a Christmas present. I ended up covering a new record of 48 miles on Christmas Eve delivering the final gift cards to new subscribers and even saying hello to some of you in the process. Particular thanks to the two couples who, unwittingly, bought each other gift subscriptions.

We’ve got a run of exclusive members-only investigations coming up over the next few weeks but for now, with the cold snap still underway, here are a few quick things to intrigue and delight you.

Late breaking news: Reform UK confirm London mayoral candidate

Just as I was pressing publish, Reform UK confirmed that Westminster councillor Laila Cunningham will be the party’s candidate in the 2028 London mayoral election.

In a press conference with party leader Nigel Farage, she said her campaign will:

• Focus on fighting knife crime by instituting an automatic stop-and-search policy for anyone wearing a mask.

• Revive high streets and end the “war on motorists” through scrapping the ULEZ clean air zone.

• Make housing more affordable by reallocating properties from refugees to other Londoners.

In her initial address she talked up the threat of sexual violence and gang war in the capital, describing London as a city where criminals “operate freely”.

“Londoners are scared because most of us have been victims of crime,” she said, saying that most of the people who don’t live here “pity” those who live in London.

The 48-year-old mother-of-seven is an ex-Conservative who defected to Farage’s party last year. A former criminal prosecutor, born in London to Egyptian parents, Cunningham fell out with the Tories after a bodged selection process for a parliamentary seat in Rotherham.

The announcement is timed to give Reform UK a boost ahead of May’s local council elections, with Cunningham expected to be sent out to perform media duties and calling for the vote to be a “referendum on Sadiq Khan”. Reform UK hopes to make big gains in London’s outer boroughs.

As for the other parties, Sadiq Khan is still engaged in a public will-he-won’t-he game around standing for a fourth term as mayor, even as other internal Labour candidates are not-so-quietly getting ready to succeed him.

Nicolas Cage vs The London Borough of Waltham Forest