Wandsworth is planning on keeping council tax at the same rate for the third year running. In one of those bizarre twists of local government finance Wandsworth’s average council tax is dropping because the Putney and Wimbledon Commons Conservators (who levy a precept to maintain the commons) are reducing their precept.

The video features Deputy Leader Maurice Heaster talking about it. You’ll note that one way we keep council tax low is by avoiding unnecessary expenditure on things like microphones.

The third, and final, part of my Face The Public presentation. Again, at 9 minutes it isn’t short, but it is annotated so you can jump right to the bit you want.

A few things. First, I need to give a photo credit to diamond geezer for allowing me to use and adapt his photo of Wandsworth Prison.

Second, is that obviously the end is totally irrelevant to a YouTube viewer. You won’t be given a copy of the assessment when you leave the room, and you won’t have the opportunity to ask questions of the panel. However, you do have the opportunity to ask me questions or just let me have your thoughts. You can get in touch via any of the ways listed on my contact page.

Finally, if you want, the slides are available on SlideShare:

The second of my Face The Public presentation. OK, it’s a bit long, at nearly ten minutes, but the video is ‘annotated’ at the front so you can jump straight to individual sections.

This section contains a brief outline of the priority setting process, last year’s priorities, acquisitive crime, serious violent crime and community reassurance.

I should also give credit for the photo of the police helmet to the Metropolitan Police, via their metropolitanpolice flickr account.

Interested in crime in Wandsworth?

Well, you might be interested in the video. It’s the first part of my presentation to the ‘Face The Public’ meeting we are required to hold every year. Since we are meant to use the meeting to present our priorities for the year, but these are invariably so high level as to be meaningless. So I’ve tried to explain the reasoning behind them as well as using it as an opportunity to detail some of the work we do as part of them.

This video is the introduction, it sets the wider context and addresses some of the negative publicity we have had over the year. I’ll be editing together and uploading the remainder of the presentation over coming days (depending on time).


Following on from The Guardian‘s filming in Tooting here’s another Tooting based film. This time made by students from South Thames College about Tooting Together. And egotistically I include it because I’m on it. But before that, there’s lots from local residents, visitors and businesses saying what they like about Tooting and what they think could be better.

(And yes, I know this is shot just outside of Wandsworth: proof that life is better in Wandsworth came when someone tried to egg us during filming.)

The Guardian (or more specifically Paul MacInnes and Hildegunn Soldal) did a short video piece about chugging last year: you will note the early stages of my festive beard, and me looking disturbingly jowly. It finally appeared yesterday (they don’t allow embedding, so the above is on my YouTube account – but you can see the original, preceded by an ad, on the Guardian site).

Some interesting vox pops from Tooting residents, though I’m not sure I agree with the conclusion.

A rhetorical tweet about handbag dogs this morning led to whole series of tweets about Roobarb, specifically its (his?) theme tune.  I don’t think dogs should be in handbags keeping your lipstick and mobile warm, they should be running about, preferably either at a perfect right angle to you or directly at you with a funky 70s guitar backing.  Why not watch the following opening credits from the programme and see if you don’t agree?

And if you want that theme on your iPod then you can get it (and virtually any other tune, all probably illegally) at TelevisionTunes.com.

It’s clearly silly season.  On Twitter David Cameron has become a ‘trending topic’ (meaning he’s one of the ten most talked about topics worldwide) because of his flippant remarks about Twitter.

I’m not sure if it shows that politics and comedy don’t mix, or the self-obsessed nature of people who use things like Twitter to communicate.

You might expect me to stick up for him. And I won’t disappoint.

It was a flippant remark with a serious point. He has decided not to go on Twitter because he feels there is a risk with an immediate and limited medium. He prefers being able to communicate in a more considered fashion. Given the response to his comments, he’s probably right. Should he have used that language? Perhaps not. Are there more important things to get worked up about? Definitely.

The response says a lot more about the people talking about what he said (and I realise the irony in me saying that) than it does about him.

Following up on last week’s post on CCTV my interview never made it into the final cut of the Newsnight feature. Although quotes from it made it into a BBC News online article and some of the associated radio coverage. Just the way the media cookie crumbles.

However, I did get invited onto BBC Breakfast to share the sofa with Shami Chakrabarti to discuss the issue.

I’ve managed to get a copy of the interviews which are on YouTube and embedded below. I’m told this is acceptable (this article suggests the BBC are relaxed) but will obviously have to remove the videos if requested.

Getting the trivia out of the way. The camera adds pounds. Lots of them. And also inches, I was told later that I looked taller than I do on Twitter! And that was another novelty. I was booked onto the show by one of the producers via Twitter, I’m sure it’s not the first time anyone has been booked onto a show like that (though certainly the first time by her), but must be one of the first times something like that has happened.

I can’t deny there’s a little ego in posting this. Not so much because I was on the sofa, but because I was on the sofa with Shami Chakrabarti! I’ve a lot of respect for her as a champion of civil liberties; meeting her reinforced that – as well as making me feel guilty that I’ve never quite joined Liberty.

But I’m also posting because it backs up the point I made last week – and Shami (note the massively unjustified use of first name) and I were not very far apart in our opinions on this – it’s not CCTV itself that is the problem, it’s the use to which it is put. And there’s a lot of unregulated cameras out there.