I think about playing a horrible April Fool’s Day trick on my children – but then decide to let sleeping kids lie.

I go to meet Antoinette in Cafe Rouge in Highgate Village. She is a photographer putting a book together on what people feel Nelson Mandela’s influence or effect has been on our lives. She is a really interesting woman – ex-fashion photographer – but now publishing books about people.

We have a coffee and a chat and then she takes me into Cafe Rouge’s little courtyard and shoots a whole reeal of film. I am extremely used to having photos taken – with broken paving stones, overflowing rubbish bins, dumped items and so on – but I have never posed for portraits before.

She suggests a variety of poses – and having been watching ‘America’s Next Top Model’ recently – I decide they must all have the patience of a saint.

We say goodbye – and I rush back to do several interviews on Ken’s 60% rise in the congestion charge. I love the congestion charge. It is one of the best and bravest policies introduced in recent years by any politician – but this rise is about Ken needing money.

There is no rise in the congestion in the central zone – indeed it has fallen further and already achieved Ken’s stated aim in raising the charge. The charge should be about traffic reduction and safety and not about raising money – otherwise such measures lose their credibility and ultimately fall apart (due to non-compliance) or get scrapped.

I would prefer to see the Mayor move his gaze from zone 1 and concentrate on introducing public transport in outer London so that the dreadful congestion suffered all over the place could be reduced. The central zone is now the last place that needs traffic reduction – while the rest of London still suffers from lack of orbital transport.