Born in Tooting, learned to swim in Streatham, learned to ski in Woolwich Arsenal and then worked all around the capital I am truly the real local Londoner.

Seen the riots in Brixton, the education system through private and state sector – suburban man am I.

Commuter colleagues in their millions cling to the trains, tubes and buses all day but no-one speaks for them – thank god for blogging

But I am not on a rant just a local Londoner with his chance to give his views – maybe I’ll stand for Mayor!

Speaking of which the Mayor and the Assembly have been given new powers to direct the skills agenda in the capital – oh great.

Its not enough to have Trust schools, Specialist schools, Foundation schools, oh and failing schools we now have another layer of bureaucracy which will move money away from the people who most need it - the students.

I think all the money should go to the voluntary sector. These guys are fantastic at taking a pound and turning it into five pounds. Don’t let the idea of small charities living out of borrowed offices put you off – they deliver on the ground to the most needy better than any public or commercial institution.

Summer means student kids are home and picking up from the tube station on Sunday shows how again everyone has missed the point that London is a multi cultural city now – we don’t have to celebrate it because every day different cultures tolerate each other.

The daughter was late and just standing to watch the extraordinary range of cultures queuing to get their Oyster cards topped up is enough to tell you that on the ground individuals are making life happen.

And that brings me on to the individuals. Think back to the Race for Life on the Thames embankment – great day, great occasion – disagree with the whole concept and if anyone wants to ask me why there’s a whole new thread in that!

But here were 10,000 people including the wife and kids, not me I was “support” doing their bit. They weren’t a group or a section of community they were individuals each with their own story doing their bit – so lets celebrate the individual.

Went to Kew restaurant last night – drove through Kingston thousands of students going into the nightclubs. Thank god I was driving through!