Ann Widdecombe made a ‘shock horror’ piece about life on the Andover Estate for ITV.  Stephen one of our local youth workers from the Copenhagen Youth Partnership was in it.  As is often the way with tabloid TV it was overall not very well balanced.  With judicious use of harsh settings in the cold for young people and nice warm cosy settings for people who were complaining about them.  There are of course lots of ASB issues involving young people on estates, but there are two sides to every story. The kids on the Andover have made their own film in reply to Ann Widdecombe – it is on YouTube – click here or on the picture below.

UPDATE 5 Spetember

I attended a debate at the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) last night on the cult of the amateur – a polemic by Andrew Keen on how amateur media is, basically, ruining our culture.  I raised the work of the Andover Estate young people as an example of how the internet gives a voice to people who are otherwise disenfranchised and don’t get a look in with traditional media.