Category Archives: Uncategorized

Image from Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi I can’t recall ever being taught about the importance of cultures, morals, and ethics from a personal perspective from GCSEs through to post-graduate education. Was this just my own personal experience or is this something that cut across my entire age cohort and is now reflective of the toxicContinue reading ““I didn’t know we had a British Institute for Adult Education!””

The cutback comes at a time when our local democracy needs more, not less scrutiny & publicity. You can read the news item here. With Cambridge City, and South Cambridgeshire District Councils now having ‘super-majorities, the need to maintain higher levels of scrutiny from established broadcasters is all the more important. Cambridge people, the cityContinue reading “BBC blow to scrutinising local democracy in Cambridgeshire & West Anglia”

Case study: The City of York The New Local Think Tank published a report on York recently. “Telling your Story of Council and Place” You can read it if you are a member – sign up here, but no longer being a member of any library or institution, I have no access. But you canContinue reading “What can Cambridge (& southern Cambridgeshire) learn from other cities as it continues to grow?”

Using Cambridge as an example given my limited mobility these days… Cambridge City Council has advertised a number of events at https://www.cambridgelive.org.uk/city-events …one of the biggest [independently organised] of which is the Strawberry Fair, which attracts thousands of people – esp young people, from all over the region. And they need more volunteers! Take theContinue reading “Cambridgeshire’s councils must ensure summer community events (eg The Strawberry Fair) include outreach stalls – esp for consultations”

This creates a huge opportunity for Huntingdon town (whose royal charter is older than Cambridge’s), and its surrounding towns and villages to make some radical improvements. It’s a shame the meeting was not live-streamed because this could become one of the most significant events in the history of the town and district. We were leftContinue reading “As the FenPowderPlot misfires, Huntingdonshire frees itself from Tory control for the first time since 1970s”

Some of you will have seen various accusations flying around social media. It relates to a motion of no confidence in Mayor Dr Nik Johnson, who was elected somewhat surprisingly as the Combined Authority Mayor around 12 months ago in the ‘Super-election’ that smashed Conservative domination of the county for the first time since anyoneContinue reading “The FenPowderPlot”

Or rather: “We’ve been here before.” Over the past few weeks I’ve scanned and uploaded dozens of very old books up to the Internet Archive on a host of subjects, not just local history. One worth looking at is Radical Technology from nearly half a century ago. It’s exquisitely illustrated by Clifford Harper – youContinue reading “You’ll never believe what they wrote in old books about things happening today!”

Such as potholes (county council) results in defeats for councillors who had no influence on the repair programmes. This came up from Ben Page of Ipsos Mori Let’s have a closer look Condition of roads – County councils Affordable decent housing – District/borough councils (Incl. Cambridge City Council) Health – Local NHS organisations Wages/Cost ofContinue reading “When local issues don’t align with the local council that is up for election”

Can Cambridge City Council invite community groups to have stalls at these community events? And can they even do some soft consultation outreach with display boards on their various plans? Music in the Parks is on the look out for bands and musicians alike. I reminded of this song by Fredrika Stahl (who some ofContinue reading “Cambridge’s Music in the Parks programme”

I’ll list her points from her blogpost at the end here: “What is your candidate’s vision for the future of this city, and how do they propose we should get there?  If they talk about ‘affordable’ housing or ‘sustainable’ development, what do they actually mean and what do they understand the environmental constraints to be? Given the Council’sContinue reading “Cllr Sam Davies asks for ideas to start conversations between candidates and Cambridge’s electorate”