The Conservatives have been calling for ministers to get on with the review into student finance.  

Cambridge City Conservatives, supported by the University Assocation, were in the Market Square setting out the Tory stall for the next election.   The country is crying out for change, if you want to help to bring it about, please contact us today!

Richard - 07 929 000 582

The West/Central Area Committee meeting descended in to low farce. The committee, including three ‘Executive’ councillors, could not work out how money from developers – paid under ‘Section 106’ – was allocated in the city. This followed a question asking why most of the development was in Castle Ward but the S106 projects listed in the agenda were in Newnham. 

As the independent member noted, “Councillors don’t understand the rules of the game”.

The Lib Dems have run Cambridge City Council for a long time now, there are no excuses.

This week David Cameron set out bold plans to deal with the big problems the country faces.

Only a Conservative vote will secure a Cameron government, restore Cambridge’s voice on the national stage, and give Britain the change it deserves.

Today's Independent reports that the move is smart on a number of counts. "Politically it is astute for the Tories to position themselves as the friends of higher education at a time when public spending cuts are threatened. Until now it is the Labour Party that has been portrayed as the universities' supporter. The announcement acknowledges the importance of higher education to the British economy and to getting young people off the dole and into work. Offering graduates an incentive to pay back loans is a clever way to raise the money to pay for the extra places. This gives people who might not normally vote Conservative a reason to do so."

If The Independent is ready for change, then the country really is.

Today's news tells us that for global higher education: "Harvard is still top, while Cambridge moves up from third to second place. Oxford slips from fourth to fifth rank."

Good, but no ground for complacency.

This morning I raised the issue of the postgraduate sector at a meeting at the Party Conference.  We need more British postgraduate students as they will provide the basis for our academic achievements in the future.  We also need to make sure that the fiasco over student loans is not repeated next year, as this will affect the number of people entering or staying in higher education in the first place.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8295336.stm

As our cousins in the Irish Republic go to the polling stations to vote on the European treaty, it is worth reminding Cambridge voters that this is something our current Member of Parliament will not allow us to do.  Every major party promised the British people a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty - the renamed EU Constitution - at the last General Election.  Labour and the Lib Dems' efforts to deny the British people any say at all on it is a breach of trust with voters. 

And now to answer the obvious question...  if the Treaty is not yet in force at the time of the next General Election, and a Conservative Government is elected, we would suspend Britain's ratification and hold a referendum, recommending its rejection.

Cambridge residents were promised a say in 2005, they deserve one in 2009.

The local managerial team was on show at the railway station this morning. Timing their appearance to coincide with regular commuters was a good start.  The openness to new ideas was also refreshing. For example, it was pointed out that the Lost Property office’s hours, opening from 8am, could be changed for an earlier start on some days enabling the morning commuters to collect things on their way in to work and not just at the end of the day.