Parliament returns – Autumn 2026

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

Only for a few weeks mind you – because the political parties have their annual conferences in late September/Early October

Image: From the Trials of Democracy project by Menagerie Theatre from 2024

You can:

Labour get theirs out of the way early

I’m sure it used to be the party in government was the one that went last – getting the benefit of ‘setting the agenda’ for when Parliament returned for the full autumn session. (Reflecting a media that can only cover political issues based on what the most recent politician told them?)

Both the Tories and TeamNigel have theirs in Birmingham, while Labour return to Liverpool. Brighton remains as the main traditional seaside resort selected by both The Green Party (which has held the Parliamentary seat since 2010) and The Liberal Democrats.

The aftermath of the 2026 local elections in England which ultimately led to the demise of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government (even though it only covered a relatively small geographical area of the country) will also see the conferences of The Green Party and TeamNigel with substantially larger numbers of newly-elected local councillors and a few new council leaders. It will be interesting to see how many of the former turn up to the conferences given the ‘spot the empty seats’ competitions, and how much of a profile the media give to the latter.

Only The Greens and the Liberal Democrats (and to a lesser extent Labour) use their conferences to decide and vote on party policies – something that too many political reporters seem to overlook when it comes to interviewing politicians. All too often it’s framed as a ‘split’ or ‘row’ within a party, or that some dissenting party member should be disciplined because these things make for cracking stories rather than being part of normal party policy-making processes.

Life returns to local government in and around Cambridge

The calendars are as below:

“Who on earth has time to keep up with all of that?!?”

No idea. But I generally run with the theme that if individuals can pick up an issue, theme, institution, or geographical area (Eg neighbourhood or council ward) then if we’re lucky we should have most things covered by someone. But it will never be enough to match the properly-funded network of local government correspondents and local newspaper reporters from generations gone by. Have a browse of some of the Cambridge front pages from 1969-2005 in the British Newspaper Archive here. A different world?

Talk to the planners about the future of Cambridge

The list of events this week from the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service here reads as follows:

I hope these have been advertised better than the last round – two of the events I went to last time around were in single figures as far as numbers were concerned. (One of them having me and one other local resident!)

Either way, do go along. If you’re short on ideas to discuss, consider:

  • Mass transit – busways vs trams and light rail
  • Active travel – new footpaths and cycleways, esp those that make it easier for people to access spaces and places
  • Essential public services with existing chronic shortages such as GPs and Dentists – conversations with whoever is responsible for them
  • Very large arts, leisure, and sports facilities at sub-regional level – i.e. ones that serve not just a local neighbourhood or new development
  • Water, ecology, the environment – and resilience to flooding, droughts, and wildfires
  • Lessons learnt from previous rounds of housing growth eg South Cambridge, Cambourne, and Northstowe
Future meetings covering the Environment

See Transition Cambridge’s calendar here:

Monday 28th September: Transition Cambridge Autumn Gathering

“Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, heartbroken, and/or enraged by the climate crisis? You’re warmly invited to our Autumn get-together, for anyone interested in making the transition to sustainable, resilient, and low carbon ways of living.”

Wednesday 30th September: Carbon Neutral Cambridge AGM with Pippa Heylings MP

“After a very brief AGM, our speaker, Pippa Heylings MP will discuss her personal experience of going from councillor to MP and Energy and Net Zero spokesperson. She will also share her insights into the opportunities for us all to accelerate political action on climate change.”

Monday 19th October: Transition Cambridge Annual General Meeting

This will be at The Unitarian Church, 5 Emmanuel Road, Cambridge, CB1 1JW 

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: