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Full Cambridgeshire County Council Meeting February 2011
On Tuesday the 15th of February 2011 I observed the full meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council at which the council’s budget was debated. The ruling Conservative group proposed a budget involving cuts to the council’s spending totalling £160m over the next five years. The reasoning for this was they wanted to produce a balanced budget […]
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Secret Consultation Underway on New Alexandra Gardens Trees Proposal
The Council is Proposing to Cut Along The Dotted Line On Friday the 4th of February Cambridge City Council secretly began a consultation with councillors on their latest proposals to carry out work to the London Plane Trees on Alexandra Gardens along Carlyle Road. Councillors have been given until Friday the 11th of February to […]
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Reforming UK Extradition Arrangements
Members of the public can have their say on a review into the UK’s extradition arrangements. The Home Office is currently inviting members of the public to have their say on a review into the UK’s extradition arrangements. The closing date was 31st December 2010, but it has now, almost silently, been extended to the […]
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Good News Says MP As Cambridge Gets Paltry Fraction of Concessionary Fares Cash
Was Cambridge’s MP Julian Huppert Too Hasty to Describe the Local Government Settlement as Good News for Cambridge City Council? On Monday the 31st of January 2011 the amounts to be paid to local councils from central government for the 2011/12 financial year were announced. Cambridge’s MP Julian Huppert welcomed the settlement in a tweet […]
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Police Ask Twitter to Determine Fate of Arrested Individuals
Earlier this month a police officer (@SgtSidJames) who calls himself the “Sheriff of East Park” in Wolverhampton tweeted about the fact he’d arrested three people for damaging a community centre, damage which he reported disgusted the centre users. I was shocked by what came next; he urged those reading his tweets to: “Let me know […]
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Prodding the Home Office to Resume Publishing Statistics on TASER use by the Police
Statistics on the use of TASER weapons by the UK police used to be published quarterly by the Home Office. This routine pro-active publication has stopped and the latest published data available at the time of writing is from September 2009*; it is well over a year old. I have been chasing the Home Office […]
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Tax and Compliance Hurdles for Small Companies
After Days Battling With a Companies House Online Form I Resorted to the Royal Mail Encouraging people to start and run companies is essential for the UK’s economy. There is huge potential for making small companies’ interactions with Government simpler and cheaper and to remove some of the hurdles those running smaller companies currently face. […]
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Cambridge Community Safety Partnership December 2010
On the 14th of December 2010 I observed a meeting of the Cambridge Community Safety Partnership. Interesting Points The police have caught and bailed five “medium scale handlers” who have each been selling 20-30 stolen bikes per week online. The police think people like this are responsible for most bike theft in Cambridge. I think […]
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Revelations Made and Questions Raised at the Home Affairs Select Committee TASER Session
On the 7th of December Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and his fellow members of the Home Affairs Select Committee held a session on the police use of TASER weapons. I wrote an article prior to the meeting in which I suggested a number of questions it might be worth asking of the Chief Police Officers […]
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Imperial College Department of Life Sciences Restructuring
Imperial College London, Biochemistry Department (Photo: Jo Anslow) The Imperial College department where I did my undergraduate degree (in Biochemistry) is reportedly set to see seventeen senior academics made redundant as part of a restructuring. The public document describing the plans is “Paper G” from the minutes of the Imperial College Council on the 9th […]