Author Archives: Cambridge Town Owl

Trying to find a range of recently-published high quality, accessible books that introduce how our country functions is surprisingly difficult. What happened to the culture of civic learning we used to have? Three years ago I wrote about the Penguin Specials published during and after WWII – a series that educated a knowledge-hungry public wantingContinue reading “It’s almost as if the publishers don’t want a democratically literate public”

It’s potentially the last political party conference season before the next general election – unless the Tories want to eek the whole term out to the grim and bitter end. As one of their former Chancellors once said, they are in office, but not in power. Even Twitter has broken which sort of reflects theContinue reading “What’s the point in providing serious analysis to ministerial announcements unbecoming of the offices they hold?”

Professor Deborah Prentice, the recently-appointed Vice-Chancellor missed the opportunity to set out her vision for how she hopes the ancient institution that she is responsible for will engage with the town whose borough charter pre-dates the arrival of the scholars from ‘the other place’ Cover image from Civic and Community Engagement by David Watson (2007)Continue reading “Cambridge University’s Vice-Chancellor needs to state how she will engage with ‘town’”

Two councillors in Cambridge picked up on these issues on my behalf, and were able to inform the CPCA of the challenges that their own residents face on the provision of post-compulsory education in and around our city. With thanks to Cllrs Sam Davies MBE (Ind – Queen Ediths Ward) and Dr Alexandra Bulat (LabourContinue reading “The Combined Authority’s limitations on further education and on lifelong learning provision in Cambridgeshire”

Some of you will be familiar with the perfectly legal way of working that the former MP for Cambridgeshire Andrew Lansley demonstrates in his business activities – one that many in the Whitehall and Westminster bubbles will be more than familiar with. But it’s one that doesn’t sit well with those whose homes and communitiesContinue reading “Why are developers so frightened of democracy and scrutiny?”

The opinion piece in the Cambs News is worth reading if only to learn some hard-won lessons about ‘how we do local democracy’ “It has been clear for a while where this was going” Cllr Elisa Meschini (Lab – King’s Hedges Division) Chair of the GCP, 28 Sept 2023 I’ve been pondering on this sentimentContinue reading ““Cambridgeshire’s politicians leave a legacy of failure” – but were they failed by their predecessors in local and national government?”

People have ***lots of questions*** about how Cambridge is governed, but our city is not putting on the events or making the spaces available for the public to ask and discuss them First of all a big ***Thank you*** to the 15 people who took part in the first Great Cambridge Crash Course at RockContinue reading “New findings from the first Great Cambridge Crash Course workshop”

They say ‘don’t read below the comments line.’ So I did. More than a few responses reflect a lack of historical awareness, frustration of a broken system, and limited knowledge of how the state functions. Or malfunctions. In the meantime, teenagers remain stuck with stupendously-long commutes because of long term national public policy failures. TheContinue reading “Some responses to the cancelling of C-Charging in Cambridge are alarming”

It’s a policy most senior politicians would not dare touch because to goes counter to the mainstream mindsets and could set precedents that would be difficult to deal with in other sectors. But something has got to give. This follows on from a point made by Prof Sarah Sharples of the University of Nottingham, andContinue reading “Could paying people to retrain in sectors with skills shortages help alleviate some of Cambridge’s chronic problems?”