Big Ben reduced to a millennium billboard

Organisers of London’s millennium extravaganza have come up with an enlightened idea to include Big Ben in the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Hopes that a naked image of Gail Porter may adorn the clocktower (a case of nudes at ten, surely), after she was projected on to the House of Commons earlier this year, have been dashed.

Instead, companies have been invited to fund a light show that will flash on and off as Big Ben strikes midnight – a case of pay-per-chime. Just don’t blink or you may miss it.