The Power of a Mayor

By 5th May 2017 our rather bizarre devolved region of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will have an elected Mayor.  This extends from near Royston in the South up through Fenland to a bit north of Wisbech, and from a bit past Newmarket in the East (but not of course including Newmarket) to near Thrapston in the West.

It’s hardly a coherent geographical region.  I, like most people round here, was initially pretty unconvinced that we needed another layer of government, but our councils voted for it, and so now we need to make the best of it.

One of the important areas where the Mayor  could make a difference is in the whole area of the environment, climate change and sustainability.   Continue reading The Power of a Mayor

A post-Trumpian cautionary scenario

This is a fictional scenario, but everything described is a plausible possibility, particularly in the light of President Trump’s election in the USA.   It is not a prediction (the future is too unpredictable for that) but aims to stimulate creative thinking by policy makers, business and NGOs. Continue reading A post-Trumpian cautionary scenario

Voyaging into an uncertain future.

The world can seem an uncertain, dangerous place at the moment.  As I write, the consequences of the Brexit vote are still uncertain in a wide range of fields. The Labour party is in turmoil, Syria is in rather worse turmoil, terrorism continues, climate change continues, and we look with incredulity at the prospect of a Trump presidency. Continue reading Voyaging into an uncertain future.

The quiet revolution: a ray of hope

As the date of the UN climate change negotiations meeting in Paris draws near, there’s a steady stream of increasingly alarming reports about the likely impacts of climate change, only slightly mitigated by the increasing number of pledges of mostly inadequate action. Continue reading The quiet revolution: a ray of hope