In case you missed them, the best of January

Whether you’re new to Big Smoke or just need a recap it’s always useful to take a quick look back at the last month’s most popular articles in case you missed them. Each month we like to give a gentle reminder of those items that may have slipped off the front page but certainly should not be forgotten.

First prize must, of course, go to Emma Dixon’s piece on The toast of Hackney. Not only is this the most read article we’ve published so far The Telegraph picked up the story as well. So proud!

Other articles, in no particular order, took the media to task over the Diane Abbott non-story in Media takes focus from actual racism in Abbott ‘race’ storm, we praised Islington for taking on charity fundraisers in Islington takes on the “chuggers”, and we took a look at the internal debates of the Occupy movement in Occupy London discusses scaling down. As well as this in the last few days we had a last minute rush for Taxi! for Tower Hamlets’ speaker which seems to have got some people excited.

You’ll have noticed we’ve started producing our own videos. If have noticed that then you wont be surprised to hear that It’s time to take road safety seriously was one of our top ranking pieces of the month. We’re happy with it although next time we’ll make it shorter.

We were also privileged to interview comedian and feminist activist Kate Smurthwaite about What’s wrong with the Sex Education Bill? this led to a renewed interest in her December Sunday Sermon on How much reality can we handle? It’s lovely to see an older piece get a new audience. Much deserved.

We have new interviews in the can from political commentator Sunny Hundal, long time campaigner Beatrix Campbell, and independent mayoral candidate Femi Solola as well as Caroline Allen, spokesperson for the Greens on animal welfare issues. Look out for all of those this week.

We’ve been trying to cover a few of the smaller protests that the mainstream media don’t cover. Our coverage and pictures from “Ditching dieting” protesters march on Parliament was very popular and we hope to keep up the good work so, if you know of an event you think deserves to be covered get in touch and we’ll try to oblige.

Last but by no means our short series on the tactics of the parties around the May elections caused a few ripples, not all of which were visible online (hints at gossip, but doesn’t reveal what, how cruel). What are the Green weaknesses? and the Liberal Democrat woes both got substantial (for us) readerships. In fact the Green piece got our second highest hit count in January although many Greens decided not to comment publicly, which is a shame but understandable.

As you liked them, we’re going to try to keep them coming. Any suggestions for issues or events we should be covering (or just stuff you’d like us to link to in our daily round up) just drop us a line at editorial@bigsmoke.org.uk. All comments we’ve had so far have been really helpful. Thank for reading.