Category Archives: Uncategorized

On why adult education and lifelong learning needs to be front and centre of practical responses not just to the call for ‘a million green jobs’ but also for a host of other challenges across our villages, towns, and cities. Image: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough’s Structure Plan Draft Deposit Plan 2002 which you can read hereContinue reading “Linking responses to the climate emergency & other big issues with adult education”

The Regional Water Resources Plan for the East of England has revealed how under-prepared our part of the country is for the climate emergency – whether for droughts or extremely heavy rainfall. TL/DR? Read Mark Williamson’s thread here. See also BBC Cambridgeshire here. Also, go and see the Pure Clean Water film about Cambridge’s waterContinue reading “Ministers and water industry chiefs are in denial about the scale of our water crisis”

The report was commissioned following complaints from MPs on a number of issues. Broken regional governance structures are at the heart of some of the problems they found. You can read the report here “Improved communication and joint working between central government and local bodies are needed to overcome barriers to progress and achieve theContinue reading “National Audit Office criticises lack of joined-up working on East West Rail”

Unless senior politicians and their policy advisers take on the barriers of lack of time, lack of knowledge, and lack of access, their proposals for getting more people involved in influencing policies will remain limited in their impact. Image – from the quickly-forgotten Civil Society Strategy from Theresa May’s Government in 2018 – noting the challenge ofContinue reading “Time, knowledge, access – policy makers must consider these factors when considering public involvement in improving things”

At the first online meeting of the Cambs Unitaries Campaign (I can’t name names because The Chatham House Rule) I was reminded of first principles. “Why bother?” Or rather, the first option to a political problem or issue is: Do nothing. It’s a bit like when someone disrespects you on the internet/social media – orContinue reading “‘If a Cambs Unitary Council is the answer, what is the question?’”

Is it worth revisiting some of the policies of the previous Labour government in the run-up to the general election? For their candidates and activists interested in local government policy, most definitely yes. I declare an interest as a former civil servant who worked during that last Labour government – I took a redundancy packageContinue reading “Total Place 2025?”

You’ll see more such reports as we get to crunch time with some very big decisions looming over the next 12 months. I tried to put things together at this evening’s meeting at The Guildhall in this thread. Alternatively search for @CamCitCo on birdsite on 06 Dec 2023 and you’ll see more. You can alsoContinue reading “Cambridge: The state of the city 2023, vs East Anglia – Levelling Up 2023”

Can residents make day-to-day public transport an issue in the run up to the general election? (Also – Great Cambridge Crash Course intro session this Saturday!) The image/graphic is from Unite Scotland and I like it. TL:DR? Drop Richard an email and say you’re interested in helping with campaigning for better bus services in 2024Continue reading “How austerity crushed bus services in Cambridgeshire”

As the final few sessions commence this month, what issues do you think we need to cover before both the local elections in May 2024, and the general election whose date is unknown? I was interviewed by Alex Elbro on Cambridge 105 about what the first group of sessions had covered – you can listenContinue reading “The Great Cambridge Crash Course 2024 – what local issues could we include?”

And it should be ready just in time for any looming general election (unless it’s called for very early 2024! 364 days after rail expert Jonathan Roberts delivered the results of his study into a radically-improved rail network to Rail Future East (I blogged about it here – scroll halfway down), Rail Future East confirmedContinue reading “Railfuture East commissions new Haverhill-to-Cambridge rail study”