As the city grows, so we will find more city wards ending up in redrawn constituencies – with the city likely to be split into two (as other cities have in the past) within the next couple of decades
Inevitably the transport issues came up – hence my previous blogpost was a timeline of the past decade, attempting to summarise the key decisions from local quangos before and after various elections.
South Cambridgeshire in Cambridge City – Queen Edith’s general election hustings
This time around it was in the main church of St John the Evangelist – the one that Oliva Newton-John’s father Brinley used to sing at in the late 1940s/early 1950s. You can watch the opening speeches below.
Above – Queen Edith’s general election hustings for South Cambs Constituency – 24 June 2024
You can also watch the full uncut hustings here – with the cleaner audio feed kindly provided by Cambridge 105, whose Breakfast show presenter Julian Clover chaired the debate.
Did they influence the voting preferences of the people in the audience? There were over 100 people in the audience, so to get over 70 responses was good.
One of these days I’m going to do a blogpost on how big tech makes computing equipment and gadgets unusable even though they are nominally in working order
Above – my laptop that enables me to do quick editing and processing of videos of meetings has reached the stage where Apple won’t maintain the software needed for it to use a host of mainstream services. i.e. the software is not backwardly compatible. It’s a bit like trying to plug in an inter-war radio with a two pin plug into a three pin socket. Hence continuing to invite donations from anyone who finds the videos useful and also can afford to – because I’m aware we’re still in a cost-of-living crisis for most of us. My huge thanks to those who have contributed already.
More recorded footage from hustings and debates in and around Cambridge
You can watch the following:
- St Neots and Mid Cambs on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (24 June 2024 – at lunchtime)
- St Neots and Mid Cambs at Girton Parish Church (24 June 2024 – in the evening)
- Future of Cambridge hustings (19 June 2024)
According to Phil Rodgers’ list there are a few more hustings for South Cambridgeshire coming up, plus one more for Cambridge and also for Ely and East Cambs respectively. If you do not know who your candidates are, type your postcode into https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/. Want to get a feel for how your opinions and values relate to the political parties? Fill in the short survey at https://votecompass.uk/ or alternatively https://www.politicalcompass.org/. They are not foolproof but they can be a useful guide for people unfamiliar with party politics in the 21st Century.
That said, the less said about the national campaigns (#Gamblegate?) the better.
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:
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- 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)
The Cambridge Town Owl 