I am calling for a UK digital sovereignty strategy to free us from our over-reliance on foreign tech giants. Please write to your MP and ask them to add their name in support: action.openrightsgroup.org/protect-brit...

✍️New column! Billions in public spending is being hoarded by US tech giants, instead of being invested in our own creative tech businesses. 'Silicon Brighton' could be the success story of our economy, if only we took a different road... www.theargus.co.uk/news/2587088...

NEW BLOGPOST: “Almost one in four adults reported feeling lonely…” cambridgetownowl.com/2026/02/22/a... Staying stubbornly high. Figures from latest ONS update.

What's up with the Harry Potter shops in central London? London Centric's investigation into their finances was raised in the House of Commons by Kensington and Bayswater Labour MP Joe Powell. He asked ministers what it will take to get HMRC officials to check the shops are paying their taxes.

Government and official opposition whips, this morning: You really don't need to bother turning up for the Lib Dem debate, but keep your ears open in case there actually is a vote. #WATO

Plans for AI data centres suggest 50 gigawatts of demand — more than the UK’s national peak of 45. Alarm bells should be ringing. Are we powering genuine public good — or hype? The environmental cost could be vast. #ClimateCrisis #ArtificialIntelligence

There’s a bigger story in this on purpose built student accommodation www.theguardian.com/education/20... What percentage of the firm’s profits are based on the huge loans students take out? (Ditto the wider market)

@redrumlisa.bsky.social Note Nottingham www.theguardian.com/education/20... - evidence that the student accommodation market is saturated there?

NEW: The government will not oppose a Lib Dem move to compel ministers to release documents about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as British trade envoy. Trade minister Chris Bryant confirmed release but warned it wouldn't happen until after police investigation had concluded.

British Geological Survey map showing parts of the UK with potential for fracking exploration. Reform has pledged to open up the country for fracking if elected. They say fracking will lower people's bills. This is disputed by London School of Economics: www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst... 🧵 1

Reform MP Danny Kruger "yeah", he agrees with Dominic Cummings that Britain is close to civil war. But he sees Reform winning as the best/only antidote. The clear logic is that he fears/warns a Reform defeat makes civil war likely

The fantastic boarded ceiling in the chancel of St. Andrew’s Church, Orwell, Cambridgeshire, dates to the 14th century. It was reconstructed in the 18th century, with the bosses repainted in the 19th century 🤩

This - General Slim’s account ‘Defeat into Victory’ provides the structure en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defeat_... - he covers the multinational makeup of the army that drove back the Japanese offensives into East India.

I have written to the Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to raise concerns about the proposed 19% fee increase. At a time of cost-of-living pressures and NHS staffing shortages, this risks harming recruitment, retention and morale. Nurses and midwives deserve better.

So he wants the state to be small enough to fit through the letterboxes of people’s homes in order to regulate their bedroom activities? 🥶

Which means a massive transfer of wealth from those working to those owning property. (So much for the aim of a society where lots of people owned their own homes - the supposed aim of Right to Buy) 😞

Getting some sources ready for our Women's History Wikipedia Edit-a-thon next month. It'll be on Saturday 14th March and we'll be adding to or creating Wikipedia entries for women from Cambridgeshire. You can find out more or book a place at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/womens-his...

Ok, so a few things to flag this week on foreign trips and freebies:

NEW BLOGPOST: “Councils and University debate future of city – 1950s” On the future of Cambridge post-WWII. lostcambridge.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/c...

A wonderful piece by @akennedysmith.bsky.social about her father Joe Kennedy: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Bergamo's pop ~20% less than Cambridge. Yet it has had light rail / trams for 17 years & is now building a second line... The shocking state of Cambridge public transport is unfit for a leading European tech capital. Cambridge cogitates while others build. www.mainspring.co.uk/industry-new...

This post is the single best advert for the fact that proper local journalism matters. If Jim’s team hadn’t put the pieces together quickly, this wouldn’t have been stopped.

#BirminghamPanoramic Birds - Eye View of Birmingham, 1886 with accompanying index identifyng. Several of the building are still standing today! Christ Church - No.19 on the index was unfortunately demolished not long after this panoramic was created. MAP/660538 #LibraryofBham

delighted to contribute to this assessment by @ukandeu.bsky.social @jreland.bsky.social on how Parliament has been marginalised post-Brexit and how that ought to change if the government signs up to dynamic alignment (though will be very frustrating)

2am and they’ve gotten louder! 😵‍💫 Oh well, at least we should have the road patched up by the morning. I think this was the result of @anna4labour.bsky.social spending last weekend reporting every patch of damaged road to the county council!

Former ICE agent: My first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a warrant. I watched ICE cut classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, use of force, lawful arrests, and the limits of officers' authority

One of Labour's political challenges is that those things it has done that is popular tend not to be well known or high profile to the general public A Reform threat to repeal employment rights is therefore a significant political opportunity, if they can seize it.

Will be interesting to see how much extra publicity the new Employment Rights Act gets now that TeamNigel say they’ll scrap it. (And what social media content Labour produces too)

Via @amcunningham.bsky.social My late grandfather learnt how to sew during WWII - part of basic training in the army at the time. No sewing machines when posted to hostile terrain with no electricity. There’s a story of social/cultural change in the decades that followed.

I wondered what that noise from outside was. Might explain the pothole road graffiti from earlier today.

Not every success is measured in scholarships or stages, writes Helen Landon. For many children, music simply becomes the place they feel most themselves. eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/educati...

NEW BLOGPOST: What Cambridge city councillors thought of the future plan for their town in early 1951 lostcambridge.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/c... King George VI granted city status later that year.

ON THE BLOG: The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: is this a crisis for the monarchy? The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has provoked many questions, such as what constitutes misconduct in public office, and how long might a prosecution take? Robert Hazell answers some of those questions

Uplifting bit of news. The sapling has been named ‘Tree of Life’ and is "dedicated to children and young people living in care or care experienced." Lots of these Sycamore Gap saplings being planted around the country at the moment. newsroom.bathnes.gov.uk/news/sycamor...

Reliably the most essential reading on any legal current affairs story.

“Britain’s political system is exceptionally vulnerable to corruption by foreigners, because it’s cheap to buy, under-regulated, conducted in the global language and worth buying”

Accountability really is the cornerstone of representative democracy. We must be able to see and appreciate the chains of reasoning on which governmental decisions (broadly understood to include cases of this sort) rest.

Meanwhile in France www.france24.com/en/france/20... “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”

IG/Tiktokker Zoe Bread who went after councils in Manchester over parking fines has now switched to town planning investigations www.instagram.com/reel/DU3md_M... On the controversial Wigan warehouses 👀

Unions enforce your employment rights. Unions can help if you’re discriminated against or mistreated by your employer. Reform doesn’t want you to have that help. They don’t care how badly you’re treated at work. They’re taking the piss out of you. You should mind. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

#UK: We've sent a letter to Yvette Cooper expressing deep concern that funding for the BBC World Service is due to run out at the end of March. We urge the government to confirm a long-term funding arrangement to ensure their vital work continues ⬇️ www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/02/the-...

Keir Starmer is visiting Gorton and Denton today, calling it a "straight fight between Labour and Reform." This is not something parties do unless they are confident of winning. So Labour either believe they have it in the bag, or someone has their sums wrong.

Local Government Reorganisation. Statement made by Steve Reed on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2026-02-23/HCWS1349

Now, we don't have the PhD student's side of the story. But there's research on women PhD students and postdocs in STEM fields showing that they often leave their programs because of the sexist mistreatment they face from men like this. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is not only infuriating, it is an amazingly stupid and narrow definition of intelligence.

Report from Cambridge Students’ Union that the Vet School has been saved. www.cambridgesu.co.uk/news/article...

Just deeply unserious reporting from the BBC here, both on the politics and the numbers No mention of Trump/ICE and what deporting hundreds of thousands of people actually look like; and no scrutiny of Reform's entirely fictional/fantasy numbers www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Darren Jones said earlier today that the police investigation will delay the release of some Mandelson-No10 correspondence. You’d imagine that is even more the case now there is an active case.

"Nobody I spoke to mentioned the Conservatives or the Lib Dems—not even as potential confounding factors. That’s a reminder, if one were needed, that the end of the supposed “main parties” could indeed be nigh. That bodes ill for Labour, as does the anti-establishment mood"

"The 72-year-old was seen being escorted from the house by plain clothes police officers and put in the back of an unmarked car." www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce... Live proceedings reminder - don't put anything on social media that could prejudice a fair trial.