Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

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”

The Fenland Reservoir and the Cambridge Retail Park have moved to the next stages In one sense there’s nothing to stop private companies going ahead with such things – after all, it helps concentrate the minds of people on issues likely to affect them and also force the issues onto the candidates. Talking of which,Continue reading “More consultations in the middle of a general election campaign?”

Beth Rigby of Sky News put the question to the Labour Party Leader at the party’s manifesto launch. (You can read the manifesto here) The website Politics Joe picked out some highlights here. Perhaps it makes the media’s job that little bit harder if a manifesto launch only highlights things that have already been announced.Continue reading “Why no big surprises in Sir Keir Starmer’s manifesto?”

Which disappoints me muchly. Before I get into my pet policies…. I’m still in the process of uploading videos from the Cambridge Climate Hustings last night – they will be at the playlist here that already has the opening speeches from the six candidates participating (including Labour’s Daniel Zeichner). I will also be filming theContinue reading “Few people are talking about light rail, or democracy education in this general election”

It took time to get going, but the pent-up anger and frustration with politics generally exploded into life in the latter part of the debate at a hustings that took a number of people co-ordinated by Cambridge Friends of the Earth a huge amount of effort and action to put on. You can find outContinue reading “Cambridge Climate Hustings – the first general election exchanges”

Given the looming general election, wouldn’t it have been an idea to withhold this until later in the year to see what any new policy announcements the next government makes? You can read the strategy at item 11 Annex A of Housing Scrutiny Committee’s meeting papers here, which is scheduled for Tuesday, 18th June, 2024Continue reading “Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire’s Housing Strategy 2024-29”

We share the same city, but sometimes it feels like we inhabit very different worlds. Free and inclusive public events are therefore essential for a city like ours. A quick reminder of Phil’s list of hustings and events here. At the moment the new constituency of St Neots & Mid-Cambs is in the lead withContinue reading “The tale of two Cambridges”

Where to start…Let’s try an old book about how Parliament worked in 1955! First of all, candidates’ lists: In summary? The presence of TeamNigel in seven of the eight seats up for grabs represents a *huge threat* to the Conservatives. The challenge for the opposition parties is whether they can agree informally on who isContinue reading “Prime Minister in D-Day shocker as general election candidates lists are published”