Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Cambridge MP joins the Government – which will mean a few things to be aware of for local residents, and a higher profile for the Liberal Democrat MPs in the three constituencies surrounding our city. It has been half a century since an MP for Cambridge has been a government minister – Sir David LaneContinue reading “Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner becomes Farming Minister”

Only the local government calendar of meetings starts up again as the new MPs head down to Westminster The first set of senior ministerial appointments have been made – see the announcement here. Further ministerial appointments are due in the next 48 hours, one of which is likely to see Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner stepContinue reading “How will Cambridgeshire’s new MPs influence our local councils?”

Time will tell whether this is a short term blip or the permanent shifting of the political tectonic plates in Cambridgeshire – historically a safe-as-castles blue-voting county Image – Before & After map from Labour’s 2019 SE Cambs candidate James Bull The inexplicable decision of Labour’s HQ to deprive a number of candidates for non-targetContinue reading “Lib Dems crush Tories in Southern Cambridgeshire in political earthquake as Labour wins power”

Cambridge City Council publishes its report on local democratic engagement – including recommendations on what will replace the old area committees This will be discussed on Wed 10 July 2024 – see Item 7 App B for the report here. For me, the consultant’s report (which I was one of the interviewees for) highlighted howContinue reading “Cambridge city council to overhaul community engagement”

Better late than never, you might say – but how will the other political parties respond given the county council and mayoral combined authority elections take place in ten months time? You can see the short video clip from Conservative MP-candidate for Cambridge, Shane Manning here. Long-term readers of this blog and my previous blogContinue reading “Cambridge Tories call for a light rail network across the city”

Co-organised by an alliance of Cambridge-based charities, the candidates were put under pressure on what their manifestos contained in response to the call from the Trussell Trust The event was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Arbury. To donate to the organising charities which included: I’m saving the videos to the playlistContinue reading “The Cambridge Food Bank Hustings on poverty in Cambridge & the UK”

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 theContinue reading “South Cambridgeshire hustings in…Cambridge?”

Both Conservative candidates for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire have raised the issue of the Haverhill-Cambridge railway. It’s an issue I have spent the past decade campaigning on. I’ve put the video links to the recent hustings in my previous blogpost here. There are two more hustings for South Cambridgeshire Constituency coming up this week andContinue reading “General election – transport issues in and around Cambridge”

It’s ever so important to provide as many constituencies with a video recording of at least one public hustings in the run up to the general election So I went to the Great Shelford Parish Council-organised hustings for South Cambridgeshire Constituency to do just that. (See the candidates’ details here). I should also thank MirandaContinue reading “South Cambridgeshire hustings at Great Shelford – 21 June 2024”

You can see the playlist of videos I’ve edited and produced here at the hustings organised by the Friends of the River Cam, and the Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations on 19 June 2024. I was commissioned by the latter to film and produce the videos. For those of you who want to watch theContinue reading “More growth vs the limits of growth as Cambridge candidates face the future of our city”