Which disappoints me muchly.
Before I get into my pet policies….
I’m still in the process of uploading videos from the Cambridge Climate Hustings last night – they will be at the playlist here that already has the opening speeches from the six candidates participating (including Labour’s Daniel Zeichner).
I will also be filming the next Cambridge Hustings – The Future of Cambridge Hustings on Wed 19 June 2024 which you can get free tickets here. There are also a series of hustings and debates around Cambridge in the three constituencies that surround the city – the next one on Phil Rodgers’ list of events is the highly-anticipated first clash between the candidates for St Neots and Mid Cambs at Loves Farm on Thu 13 June 2024 – free tickets here.
Above – Please support my community reporting and local historical research
Manifesto launches
You can find the manifestos of each party on their websites
- Conservatives
- Green Party
- Labour Party (Publishing date 13 June 2024)
- Liberal Democrats
No citizenship education, no light rail
Or rather, both didn’t get much of a mention at all, Which I find desperately disappointing. Therefore it’s up to you to ask the candidates about both if you feel that these are important issues.
Politics and democracy learning
The teaching of politics and democracy in schools falls within the remit of citizenship education – which has its own Association of Citizenship Teachers here, and access to a host of useful materials for members.
Text books are also available – shorter discussive ones from the South Cambridgeshire Publishers Independence Educational here, to the GCSE Citizenship text books of which the second hand ones published before 2016 contain information on the rights UK citizens used to have when part of the EU.
Learning about public transport
The main campaign for light rail and trams for our towns and cities is the longstanding LRTA – which dates back to the interwar era. They have their own members’ magazine that you can sometimes find in WHSmith or order online from Magazine Supermarket if you don’t want to become a member. (Older back copies are also available from that auction site!)
Adult Education and Lifelong Learning
I’ve mentioned the importance of this policy area in many previous blogposts. Note the budget for adult learning and skills – very artificially narrowed by successive governments, falls within the Combined Authority’s remit in terms of how it is spent. But the amount available is set by Ministers. You may want to ask candidates about increasing that overall national budget to enable local government to put on more activities – not least to get people more active, benefiting their physical and mental health and also to reduce loneliness.
Furthermore, there is the challenge of upskilling our society to ensure we can meet the challenges of the climate emergency. The Conservatives have announced more loans as their policy. The Liberal Democrats and The Greens have also mentioned about increasing funding for the sector, but no detail on how people are meant to live if that training is to be full time and comprehensive. Are employers willing to pay people to retrain? We await Labour’s policy proposals in the next 18 hours as I type!
Cambridgeshire’s public transport
Only Shane Manning – the Conservative candidate specifically mentioned light rail as his party’s policy. The problem is that his predecessors opposed the light rail plans from Connect Cambridge when they controlled the Greater Cambridge Partnership and the Combined Authority until the early 2020s – the Liberal Democrats’ Cllr Cheney Payne calling them out on ‘five wasted years’. What’s not yet clear is a specific commitment from the other three parties on Cambridgeshire County Council regarding the option of light rail to support any future growth in and around Cambridge.
On wider rail infrastructure and service improvements, feel free to read/print out Rail Future East’s June 2024 newsletter here. (You can also see their previous newsletters here). Which are the lines that upgrades would lead to significant reductions in motor traffic? Which are the ones that might make for suitable employment/business sites? They don’t all have to be rabbit-hutch-style dormitory accommodation serving the big science parks. (Should some of the sci-tech parks be building some on-site flats themselves?)
Conversations do not have to stop on polling day
There are a number of groups and organisations looking to continue discussions – not least because of the emerging local plan for Greater Cambridge, and the elections for the Combined Authority Mayor & the County Council which are in 10 months time! Off the top of my head I can think of three that are worth looking into over the summer:
It would be a shame to lose the connections that are being made as a result of the general election campaigns. Hence I hope collectively we can keep things going – because if anything the hustings yesterday (that had over 200 people attending) showed there is an appetite for it.
Food for thought?
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
- Follow me on Twitter
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge. (Chronic illness means I am on Universal Credit)
ICYMI – have a browse through the new Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy published a few days ago.
The Cambridge Town Owl 