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Jesus Green Association AGM 2009
Repairing the path under the avenue of plane trees on Jesus Green is at last high up the city council’s list of priorities. On Thursday the 3rd of December 2009 I attended the Jesus Green Association’s Annual General Meeting. This was a public meeting, open to all, which had been advertised by email, on posters […]
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MP Condemns Hyperlocal Websites as Purveyors of Tittle Tattle and Opinion
Adrian Sanders MP dismissed websites as ‘Tittle Tattle’ during a session of the House of Commons’ Culture Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday 8 December 2009. In a shocking exchange at the House of Commons’ Culture Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday the 8th of December 2009 Adrian Sanders MP (Liberal Democrat, Torbay) dismissed everything […]
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Prospective Conservative Candidates for Cambridge Announced
Those running in Cambridge’s “open primary” to select a Conservative Parliamentary Candidate have been announced: Nick Hillman The leading candidate appears to me to be Nick Hillman. Mr Hillman is the only one of those standing to have a personal / political website though even he only started his blog a week or so ago. […]
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A Response to Cambridge in Political Turmoil
The Conservative stall at the Mill Road Winter Fair was unmanned. Neither the Liberal Democrats or Conservatives have a Candidate in Cambridge. The Cambridge Universities Labour Club Blog recently ran an article by George Owers entitled Cambridge in Political Turmoil which discussed the state of the prospective candidates for Cambridge in the forthcoming 2010 general […]
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Gritting Riverside
Riverside in Cambridge is treacherous when it’s icy but the councils are refusing to grit it. Photo: Cambridge Cycling Campaign (license) On the 12th of November 2009 I attended Cambridge City Council’s North Area Committee. I asked City and County Councillors if Riverside would be gritted this winter. This area was a problem in icy […]
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Taming Guerrillas Could Save Cambridge City Council Money
There are currently patches of bare soil outside the shops in Akeman Street, Arbury. At the North Area Committee on the 12th of November 2009 Cambridge City Councillors agreed to spend an incredible £4,750 on replacing plants on a tiny plot of land in-front of the shops on Akeman Street. Councillors were told that plants […]
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Protest Against Increasing University Top-Up Fees
On Thursday the 26th of November students from all Cambridge’s universities are holding a protest against the levels of debt many students get in during their courses as a result of high, and increasing, tuition fees. The protest is to involve a walk through the city centre starting in East Road at midday and is […]
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Police Ought Focus More on Criminals and Less on Those Reporting Crime
Cambridgeshire Police can’t cope with leaving questions on forms blank, even when they are irrelevant. I attended Cambridge City Council’s North Area Committee on the 12th of November 2009. During the policing agenda item members of the public are given the opportunity to ask questions of the police and make suggestions. Councillors then vote on […]
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Ministers Given Power to Replace Inquests with Secret Inquiries
Last week the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 was passed by Parliament. The act gives ministers the power to order an secret inquiry, without a jury, be held instead of a coroner’s inquest. I think inquests should be open, public, processes during which the circumstances of a death are determined discussed. An outcome should be […]
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Performance of NHS Cambridgeshire’s Exceptional Cases Panel
I have been looking into the performance of Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust’s “Exceptional Cases Panel”. The panel is tasked with deciding if public money ought be spent on a treatment which is not covered by existing NHS contracts and policies. The kind of requests which the panel deals with include high cost treatments for rare […]