Category Archives: Uncategorized

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?”

TL:DR – Quite a lot – and not least they can inform us of what questions to ask next time around. Which is now. It seems like there’s a new consultation for something every other day in and around Cambridge at the moment. In part this is reflected by the fragmentation of local governance whichContinue reading “What can past Cambridge town planning documents tell us about the future?”

With the present Government making a big deal of three-word-slogans, ministerial urges for the masses to spend and build are not compensating for the void left behind by the closure of social activities and the venues that host them. Above – me after eight years with mental exhaustion. Sleep never brings rest. I’m struggling toContinue reading “Fighting the emptiness with the shutdown of group activities”

TL:DR – I don’t know either, but the problems facing people in the neighbourhood are intrinsically linked to a whole host of other things happening in and around Cambridge. If you want the very long history going back 200 years, I recommend going to the pages of the Mill Road History Society. The much shorterContinue reading “How do you solve the bridge-related problems with Mill Road?”