If BlueSkyers out there would like to join us as citizen journalists on a mission to speak truth to power in this increasingly censored world, you are very welcome, whatever your nationality, and wherever you live.
Ex-Whitehall type still with views on public policy, but now local historian in Cambridge (UK) blogging at https://lostcambridge.com/ - also writing about the future of the city on The Cambridge Town Owl.
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If BlueSkyers out there would like to join us as citizen journalists on a mission to speak truth to power in this increasingly censored world, you are very welcome, whatever your nationality, and wherever you live.
Time to rethink & account for the assumptions we have on what a well-functioning society/ies need as essentials?
Bold move… 👀
Sadly my grandiose plans for a new guildhall front were rejected 😢 cambridgetownowl.com/2024/01/04/c...
Sadly my grandiose plans for a new guildhall front were rejected 😢 cambridgetownowl.com/2024/01/04/c...
#Cambridge people: what do you think re our city’s guildhall? (Note the city council is consulting on this at www.cambridge.gov.uk/news/2025/09... )
If anyone from #CamTechWeek has views on revamping The Guildhall, see www.cambridge.gov.uk/news/2025/09... Personally I’d like to see revenues from a proposed visitor levy that the English Devolution Bill is bringing new powers for, funding some of these improvements. 🙂
Echoes of relocating the County Council to a remote business park. Reminiscent of a passage from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
3/2 Which matters if the local built environment looks like this 😱
…is that they are open to learning from Dr Cleo Valentine’s research (www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/b8b2b7... and www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/phd... ) on the mental health stress impact of different urban designs.
Just got back from here. Had a moan about holding an exhibition in such a hard-to-reach place for ordinary residents. Ie you have to know what you’re looking for & go out of your way to get there. No chance of catching ‘passers-by’. However, the better news… 1/2 —>
"I need you to understand what this country feels like right now to those of us who look different, because only then might you glean what those flags going up signify to someone like me. They are a preemptive claim over contested space. They say "we own this street - not you."
For how much longer if the international news is filled with footage of violent protests? (With the inevitable knock-on impact on tourism which for some cities & attractions can ill-afford to lose that revenue)
Will be interesting to hear how the Cambridge branch of YourParty gets on today given the scenes on the national side. cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/20/y... 👀
Via @generalboles.bsky.social *Another faction*?!?! 😳 1/2 —>
This gets to the root of the problem. We still have a DB mindset in a DC world. The previous generation had guaranteed pensions and generous employer contributions, all managed for them. Their children and younger siblings assumed that was still the case.
George Monbiot endorses alternatives such as Zack Polanski, "As long as they give us hope that our country gets better for the people who live here"
There’s normally a big Cambridge/Cambs contingent at #Libdems annual party conferences. Expect a few more given they won control of Cambridgeshire County Council this year on top of 3 new MPs in the county in 2024. Tories imploded in north Cambs - now on same total (10 county seats) as TeamNigel.
Lib Dems call for police desks in supermarkets and libraries www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #LibDems #LDConf
Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.
He wanted a quiet break so he tried to go to Colombia. 😂 Honestly, this sort of total commitment to scoring some gear deserves our admiration.
we freely, if reluctantly, give private Corporates based abroad all our most intimate data and yet cavil over the one true measure of citizenship (as opposed to being inconvenient Subjects)
Paradise for fat Consultants as govt to update National Insurance numbers at last. What modern state could operate without basic citizenship information? on.ft.com/4nmChZl
Given the damage his policies did, Osborne has had a remarkably easy time from the political & media bubble
Would be good if you could cover the lifelong learning sector & its role in both reducing loneliness and as a means of strengthening our democracy discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10... - awaiting the citizenship curriculum review with interest
One I made earlier…. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/630...
Via @eicathomefinn.bsky.social on the old Napoleonic PoW camp near Peterborough
Part of the problem is also the existence of unaccountable multinational corporations. (“If firms are multinational their regulators must be - the challenge is making those regulators accountable to the people” is a principle I’ve run with). So much wealth is extracted & exported from communities
Given the devolution of powers to the parliaments & assemblies of Scotland, Wales, & N Ireland, would designating MHCLG’s Secretary of State as “The Secretary of State for England” be a first step?
Some of us Cambridge town people have been asking the same about the sci-tech bubble here. Every plot of land (even capped landfill sites) are being marketed as potential science park sites. (Making it much harder for non-tech businesses that cities need function properly 😢)
Dutch late night TV has its take
We’ve had a couple of ‘please don’t feed your PhD student’s thesis into AI to help write your supervisor feedback’ emails recently 😩
NEW BLOGPOST: “Your Party Cambridge meets amidst turmoil at the top while Trials of Democracy returns” cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/20/y... The first meets later today at the Mill Road Centre, the latter takes over The Guildhall in 2 weeks time.
I’ve just realised that I haven’t listened to BBC radio 4 routinely now for years. I stopped the news programmes including the today programme over a year ago when they became unashamed mouthpieces for Farage. I was a lifelong radio 4 listener. I wonder how many others there are.
In which Mr Pecksniff lays before his readers for their approval certain observations and speculations reflecting on the political life | East Anglia Bylines
We need to be very clear about this. Rising Christian nationalism is a threat to us all. humanists.uk/2025/09/17/r...
I think the comments by Alan Finlayson are spot on. This isn't an administration that seems minded to involve voters (ot it's MPs) about what it's trying to do. Suspect this is another example of McSweeney's influence www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
NEW BLOGPOST: "Your Party Cambridge meets amidst turmoil at the top while Trials of Democracy returns" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/20/y...
From Birdsite a few minutes ago. x.com/zarahsultana... At what point might ZT call it quits and either sit as an independent, or do what a number of the Change UK MPs did and join another party? (In ZT's case, most likely The Greens rather than the LDs?)
"A symptom of government failure which should have prioritised enough civil service resources to develop a comprehensive policy on privately-owned e-scooters, and to have had ministers table the legislation in Parliament to get the policy written into law." See also www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyB5...
NEW BLOGPOST: "Peter Freeman gives evidence at the C2C busway inquiry as teenagers find their own transport solutions" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/19/p... Featuring the HI-Hub (Histon & Impington) on the students who had e-scooters confiscated. Why have ministers not legalised and regulated?
Villagers are ripping invasive plants from the banks. Trout habitats are being restored. Wildlife is being tracked. But one thing still poisons the Cam: sewage pouring from treatment works. Kate Moore reports #BigRiverWatch
The letter was signed by: Lord Gus O’Donnell, Lord Jim O’Neill, Professor @mazzucatom.bsky.social, @elerianm.bsky.social, Professor Sir @uofgvc.bsky.social, Professor @sjwrenlewis.bsky.social and Professor @jdportes.bsky.social.
Some of the UK’s most distinguished economists have written to the Chancellor warning that fiscal sustainability will not be achieved “without a significant further increase in public investment” to drive economic growth: www.thetimes.com/article/5acc...
@bellingcat.com CEO @eliothiggins.bsky.social discusses his thoughts on how democracy needs verification, deliberation, and accountability and how social media algorithms disrupt those elements. From the Democracy for Sale podcast. youtu.be/7si0HCTyr1Y
In case you missed it, Ash Sarkar completely nailed the atomisation of solidarity on the left, as seen in Your Party’s implosion: youtu.be/zo3URITmjsQ
wrote about this last year and sure I wasn't in any way the only one but imo people voting for populist politics in the 21st century *is* a sign that they do just have too much faith in institutions, as opposed to not enough - they want to have their little tantrum but assume things will just hold
Just a cosy little human interest feature chatting to people who went to support a far right racist criminal thug What on earth is the BBC up to?
Green Party sources cock-a-hoop at the ongoing meltdown of Your Party, which they say is leading to a surge of new members. 3,000 people signed up in the last day alone news.sky.com/story/diplom...
We did warn you.
So it's not just me then? 🙃
We @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk are hiring a postdoc to work on AI and geopolitics www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
...feel free to drop a few pennies! ko-fi.com/antonycarpen
NEW BLOGPOST: "Peter Freeman gives evidence at the C2C busway inquiry as teenagers find their own transport solutions" cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/19/p... Also, for anyone who is willing and able to support my research and reporting --->
"Country overview: E-scooter regulations in Europe" www.evz.de/en/travellin... How does the UK compare? (And why can't #Cambridge have 'Cambridge Blue' e-scooters instead of VOI toxic orange?) @cambstravelall.bsky.social @camcycle.bsky.social
"Illegal e-scooters seized from Impington Village Collage students" (just outside #Cambridge on the other side of the A14) www.hihub.info/news/illegal... This is a symptom of policy failure by the Department for Transport which should have developed a substantial policy and tabled legislation on it
Forgive me if this is stating the blindingly obvious but I always assumed that Tories produced more Tory voters by expanding home/capital ownership, while Labour produced more Labour voters by boosting university enrolment rates? Both appear to have given up.
Students: what say you? 👀
'These are the rules - oh, but they don't apply to us' - see also Boris Johnson's Government and CV19 law breaches in Downing Street.
I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.
H responds from 1998: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnN3... 😎🕺
Meanwhile in Peterborough... "Observers described the mood as “somewhere between a rejected Bake Off contestant and a child denied screen time.”" #Localgov www.cambsnews.co.uk/news/peterbo... by @cambsnews.bsky.social #Localgov in the cathedral city.
History repeats itself.
NEW VIDEO: Peter Freeman CBE gives evidence to the Cambourne-2-Cambridge Busway public inquiry. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKEe... cc @cambridge-connect.bsky.social @cambstravelall.bsky.social
Some of it may also be the political minefield that’s the related local govt reorganisation agenda, which was led by Jim McMahon, no longer in post
🔴 NEW: How disinformation spreads, why trust in institutions is collapsing, and how social media platforms fuel conspiracy movements and populist surges. Highly recommend this conversation with @eliothiggins.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-algori...
Why is no-one talking about the tech deal on here? Why are our political commentators failing to discuss an absolutely critical strategic decision which will all but rule out ever rejoining the EU let alone building a Green economy? Where the hell is the analysis on this??
See also Dr Cleo Valentine on neuroarchitecture www.arct.cam.ac.uk/research/phd...
The University of Westminster studied stress hormone (Cortisol) levels in City workers on a brief lunchtime visit to an art gallery and found a drop in cortisol was rapid and substantial - under normal circumstances it would take about 5 hours to fall the same extent naturally.
I hope they asked for a ministerial direction or equivalent. Also, I hope they still do the assessments and state what they would have concluded but for ministerial intervention. So if/when things go pear-shaped. Exactly.
MHCLG trying to take over Environment Agency & force them to wave through planning applications is ridiculous. Nature is not the problem. The mitigation hierarchy will still apply to all energy projects even after the Planning bill. Why is it so hard to build 🏡 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The Green Party (England and Wales) say they've passed 75,000 members this morning. The day Zack Polanski was announced as leader, just over two weeks ago, they told us they had 68,500 members.
It was under 70,000 just before the announcement of their leadership results. Would be interesting to see what proportion of the new members are completely new to politics vs those switching from other parties, rejoining etc. (Note only around 1% of the population is a member of a political party)
Far too much of Labour's messaging on policy since taking office has been framed in negative terms. This just sends a signal that the party doesn't like/stand for particular groups - and alienates them. To retain/win support it needs to tell people what and who it stands *for*...
Quite a turnaround compared with the last election. (Also, I keep a watch on those mainstream candidates who poll fewer votes than what Puffles the Dragon Fairy got in Coleridge, Cambridge in 2014 which was 89 votes. 🐲😁 Oh dear Tories!
Green gain from Labour in one of the few Red vs Green cities in the U.K. (My old stomping ground of Brighton & Hove, one of the Millennium cities that got city stays in the Year 2000 with the slogan “All things Brighton beautiful” 😎
#FridayFacts. People walking, wheeling and cycling help keep Cambridge moving. If all those who cycle daily in Greater Cambridge switched to driving, their cars would tailback 118 miles (Sustrans). Making it easier to walk, wheel and cycle benefits all road users.
🚌 Buses connect people to jobs, education, healthcare, and each other — especially important in rural areas. But unreliable and cut services are leaving communities stranded. I’m calling for proper investment in public transport that’s dependable, affordable, and accessible for all.
How can we dramatically increase the adoption and usage of Pro-Democracy Technology? Rodney Schwartz of Delib presented his research, based on interviews with 80+ European practitioners, at #TICTeC - and now you can watch this session again:
-> @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social is right. I go further in calling for civics to make a return as part of a huge public education program for adults via the lifelong learning sector discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10... As recommended here
Then we need a huge public education program/campaign to educate the public about democracy, civics, & the rule of law. As recommended here discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...
NEW BLOGPOST: “‘In Cambridge, we believe growth must be inclusive…’” cambridgetownowl.com/2025/09/18/i... So why isn’t it?
Responding to @labourlewis.bsky.social @compassoffice.bsky.social Robin Cook memorial lecture, I thought this from Cook's 2003 diary was remarkably relevant to today
My mom called me last night about the Kimmel firing, saying "This is how Hitler got started!" I quickly responded, "By firing the late night tv hosts?" Turns out, mom was right.
Once again, people not from the Dereham Road area are trying to speak for & stifling the free speech of the people who live there. These people need to f**k off from Dereham Rd. Once they've f**ked off, they need to stay wherever it is they've f**ked off to! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Overcrowded cells. Unsanitary conditions. Limited access to food and water. These are the conditions that ICE has created at 26 Federal Plaza, which eleven elected officials sought to expose. Instead, they were arrested. They must be released right now — and inspectors let in.
Underrated moment on tonight’s Question Time. Bruce ‘explains’ the reason for Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension. Audience member corrects her. It could so easily have gone unchallenged. Thanks for the show today @mrjamesob.bsky.social or it may not have resonated quite so loudly in my brain! #bbcqt
The look on the lady’s face behind him speaks volumes. #bbcqt
Man with orange face and Oompa-Loompa outfit, "There's no racial overtone in saying we want to preserve and protect our borders, our women and children, our history and our heritage" Bonnie Greer, "When did the UK open the doors and let everybody in?" #BBCQT
That’s long enough for a multiple series TV drama production! (It’d probably have to start at the end of WWI with the split between Labour & the Communists!)
Can’t help but be struck by the paralysis of civic & opposition political institutions in terms of large organised responses. It’s almost like everyone’s waiting for a superhero from the 1980s to show up and save the day.
Note also the channel stats for @zackpolanski.bsky.social incl those all important subscribers, now in five figures. Impressive given the short space of time. www.youtube.com/@BoldPolitic...
I and many others have got rinsed over the past year for having assumed that Keir Starmer knew what he was doing, back when he was first elected Labour leader, but I feel like in our collective defence he at least didn't turn up in a clown car that was actively on fire from the very start
The “Left List”, Trade Union & Socialist Coaltion, and before that the Respect Unity Coalition (emerging from the Anti-war protests in 2003), and before that the Socialist Alliance 2001. (Even Socialist Labour in 1997). Have I missed any? 🙃
This is a disgrace they need to fire the person at the BBC who is charge of the News, they are clearly biased.
See en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Ke... for their 2025 election stats
FPTP did something crazy in Kent earlier this year. Look at the Tories vs LibDems: compare no of votes to seats. Ditto Tories vs Greens.
“The Conservative Party, who lost control of the council in May, said it would support the Reform UK motion, as did the single UKIP member.” 50 votes for, 21 against.
I feel sorry for those new to politics & campaigning who got their hopes up only to see them dashed like this. Feels like history repeating itself - the Respect Unity Coalition, & before it the Socialist Alliance (2001).
At the end of conferences/events (esp campaigning ones) I sometimes ask everyone at the end to commit to one small behaviour change or one small one off action as a result of attending. And start from there. (Otherwise little changes). Start small, go from there?