Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

The influential Chair of one of the more higher profile parliamentary committees (especially given the CV19 pandemic and schools) seeks to reverse decades of decline You can read Mr Halfon’s remarks to his local constituency media here, and can also read the full report by the House of Commons Education Select Committee here. Unfortunately andContinue reading “Robert Halfon MP calls for a revolution in lifelong learning – new report by the Commons Education Select Committee”

It’s hard to put into words the impact that a seemingly invisible illness has on a person where it stops them from working full time and functioning as before. I stumbled across some very old posts from nearly a decade ago from those who I was familiar with then, but not so now. “I wonderContinue reading “Erasmus – a personal anecdote reflecting a wider institutionalised ignorance in the face of inequalities”

It was this thread by @ClinicOncDoc that was pointed out to be by @LucyGoesDating (who is also brilliant and worth following) that seemed to touch so many of us going by the responses. I’ve lost count of the number of media articles and posts that have been written about this subject – dating in aContinue reading “Being single in a pandemic – on a thread that touched a lot of us”

…would be the headline I’d consider running with if I were a party political opponent. But as it’s ***ages away*** from Cambridge (halfway between the city & Letchworth, one of the first ‘garden cities’) slap bang in the middle of safe-as-castles Tory-voting land, I’m going to sit back and gloat for a bit given whatContinue reading ““Tory property paymasters unveil new South Cambridgeshire monster town!””

TL:DR – it’s all about turnout. Cambridge City Council’s entire slate of councillors are up for re-election in May 2021 following the postponement of the 2020 elections. There are also local elections for the unitary authority of Peterborough City Council where a third of councillors are up for election. The latter council became a unitaryContinue reading “Could the Cambridge City Council & Peterborough City Council elections influence the results of other elections locally?”

The disgraced former Defence Secretary, now the Education Secretary, made an extraordinary claim about exams recently. As you can imagine, there were more than a few people that contested the claim repeated by the Department for Education’s Twitter Feed. Mariana Hyde in The Guardian also lashed out him with her virtual pen. In my experienceContinue reading “Business studies courses vs those on public and not-for-profit sectors. Plus careers & exams in a CV19 era.”

With the elections coming up in six months time, the declared candidates are being questioned on what their proposals are for the future of a scheme that if built, could last long into the future Back in 2016 a number of campaign groups in and around Cambridge got together to debate the Greater Cambridge CityContinue reading “Mayoral candidates debate the Cambridge Light Rail Underground Metro proposals”

Was there anything local organisations could do, or was this another failure of corporate governance and of government policy? Sometimes I get the impression that Boris Johnson’s ministerial team is in office but not in power – an epithet thrown at John Major’s Government in the early 1990s by his Chancellor Norman Lamont who resignedContinue reading “The woes of Arcadia and Debenhams hit the headlines – with inevitable job losses in Cambridge”

It would be a mistake to think such a proposal would simply be another attempt to carve out a ‘Middle Class is Magical’ enclave out of an historic working class area. Just ask Marcus Rashford MBE. The Manchester United & England footballer Marcus Rashford recently launched a reading club. This was following his campaign onContinue reading “Could The Grafton Centre host a very large bookshop as a new anchor store?”

TL:DR – Look through the list, pick one you like, go onto Abebooks (or anywhere else for that matter), find a cheapo version that costs less than the postage, buy it, read it, tweet/blog about it, give it to a local charity shop. This post stems from a Lost Cambridge piece on how old booksContinue reading “Penguin Specials – because we’ve been here before on so many contemporary issues”