Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

TL:DR North Cambridge has Cambridge Regional College, but south of the city doesn’t really have an equivalent – and the city itself does not have anything like CityLit in London Formerly the City Literary Institute in London, the college provides a series of daytime short courses for adults. Given the recent, current, and proposed growthContinue reading “What could a day college for adults in [South] Cambridge be like?”

“If money can’t buy happiness, I guess I’ll have to rent it!” Words to that effect by Weird Al Yankovic from a time gone by spoofing a time gone by before even then. Though I always imagined the music video to have been far more upbeat when I first heard the song. Because we areContinue reading “How are you coping without live music?”

TL:DR – The concept of exams in the 21st Century is now up for debate following the A-level results shambles. And Williamson is still in post.  This stems from Sonia Sodha’s column in The Guardian, where the headline (which is never written by the columnists in newspapers) states The fake meritocracy of A-level grades isContinue reading “If ‘exams’ are the answer, what is the question?”

TL:DR – I don’t know why the Education Secretary is still in office either. I’ve lost count of the number of high profile voices going after the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister over the shambles of the A Level Results for 2020. Boris Johnson four days ago: “Let's be in no doubt about it,Continue reading “What will it take for a minister to resign on principle?”

TL:DR Responding to a call from the Children’s Commissioner on the purpose of exams, ministerial assumptions that university learning is primarily for future employment, and Dr Jana Bacevic’s musings on an online University for the Left. A number of us, myself included were taken aback to find that one of the most highly regarded politicalContinue reading “The shortcomings of a linear education of the pre-internet age”

TL:DR. Missing regular social contact is tough enough with a chronic illness, and the restrictions due to COVID19 has increased the magnitude & intensity of this for me. This sort of follows on from my previous blogpost and is a bit of a moan about all the fun stuff that has been shut down understandablyContinue reading “I want, I wish,…I miss…”

TL:DR. Do songs sound different after not having heard them for years – decades even? Chances are I heard the Lightning Seeds play this song when I saw them at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in early 1997. Waiting for today to happen: The Lightning Seeds, Epic 1996. Given the state of my mental and physicalContinue reading “Waiting for today to happen”

TL:DR – Government stats show the River Cam and ground water levels are struggling. “There is no environmental capacity for additional development in the new Local Plan [2030 ono] to be supplied by with water by increased abstraction from the Chalk Aquifer. Even the current level of abstraction is widely believed to be unsustainable”.p17 here.Continue reading “Where will the water come from for the extra 14,000 homes in Cambridge?”

TL:DR. Dr Anna Bull, formerly of this parish has written a book. Buy it and read it. Please. I’m not really sure what the best way to begin this article actually is. I’ve already deleted entire paragraphs pondering whether to give a personal history as a background is the right way to go. This pieceContinue reading “Class, control, and classical music in late 20thC Cambridge”

TL:DR On the Government’s new Planning White Paper avoiding anything more than the most minimal of scrutiny. The White Paper policy document is called Planning for the Future – and incorporates a consultation as well. The consultation ends on 29 October 2020. John Crace in The Guardian has this acidic take. One of the thingsContinue reading “Planning for whose future?”