The Street where they cut everything

BBC I aired a documentary last night about what happened to a street in Preston, in northern England where all council services are cut for six weeks.

It was good; a fly on the wall type thing where residents are given a sum of money and have to decide where to spend it now that all council services have gone. No-one to collect the rubbish, no street lights, no-one to clean graffiti. All pretty simple until that sum of money is "cut". Who gets the help? The pensioner, the single mother or the disabled parent of a resident who lives in another village? Different people, different needs. We know that don't we? (I hope)

It made uncomfortable viewing because it got nasty. Of course it did. Programmes like this like to show neighbours pitted against one another, neighbours at war; it makes good telly.

Unsurprisingly the street didn't have a resident billionaire. It didn't have a resident millionaire for that matter. No, they live five miles away in gated communities. They don't feel the effects of cuts, they just read it in the news, if the news reports it that is. Muggings are so commonplace they don't make it on any page these days, even if the victim's dead.

What I want to know though, is did Dave watch it?

Did Dave watch this programme about the consequences of his Party's ideological cuts?

Dave, the architect of the Big Society. You can still catch it on iplayer Dave because it's not really me who needs to know all this.

It's you.