Libraries lost

The proposed closure of the public libraries across Britain is appalling. In part it is led by local Labour councils looking for a controversial cut to draw attention to the wider assault upon the public services by the coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Playing politics with the community in this way is as destructive and wrong in my view as the political objectives of the government driving the agenda forward.

Others have used the diminishing use of  libraries on account of our access to the internet for information as reason for their decision. I do not deny that I probably do now use the internet more frequently than the library specifically for research. However, I have to hand an array of sophisticated electronic gadgetry from a PC down to a BlackBerry that enables that access - most people do not.

Amazon is now claiming that it sells more e-books than paper - but then there has to be a link here, surely, with their e-book reader, the Kindle! My experience in the past of Amazon as a supplier of books has been good: however I am still awaiting a paper biography of Walt Whitman that I ordered through them in November ... currently not available for technical reasons. You probably recognise where my mind is now going.

I have space to study at home, my own office and desk space in work. Few enjoy those luxuries as the cost of housing continues to rise and the size of spaces within them decreases; offices are becoming hot desks at which to plug in laptops that have been stored in lockers as the cost of providing that work space becomes prohibitive.

My office is usually the node at which I relate to colleagues or members of the public. It is anything but my thinking or research space. The public library - particularly in the miserable British weather - remains however my quiet corner for solitude and study. I seek at least once a week to take my gadgets and note books with me to the reference section of the library off the high street and, when tired of staring at a screen, indulge myself in the pleasure of handling a book, and smelling the foggy atmosphere of polished tables and creaking leather seats.

There is a place for progress in my thinking: I would be 'at a loss' rather than 'lost' without my gadgets and look forward to the BlackBerry Playbook being launchd in the coming months as a more business-orientated tablet than the iPad. However many people with a Kindle or Sony e-book reader have had the unfortunate experience of having not checked the charge status of their reader ahead of a long journey by public transport . . . and wished for a book!

There is a more ominous side as well to the loss of the library as a repository of knowledge. I value change for the good, but cannot help feeling that the justification of falling attendance as being reason to close a library is as fallacious as the same justification for closing a church, a bank or a news agent. Not only do we become over reliant upon the convenience of electronics, but so too do we remove the human contact and perhaps most importantly, ability to continue our lives without reliance upon something that can be turned off in an instant. If I cannot Google or Wikipedia it - where do I turn for knowledge? Without libraries, future generations will be unable to answer that question - just as arguably today, the loss of churches as a moral compass could be the reason for a modern intolerance and amorality that is disturbing.

It's Christmas ... so what's in store for 2011?

I have lost proper track now of each and every recession that I have lived and worked through - this one, though, feels different - very different.

The new "coalition" government has set out to redress the national debt by axing public services, selling off anything that might form a part of an earlier legacy (forests) and hoping to turn things around so fast that by the next election, we will have forgotten / forgiven them the pain of the first three years of their office.

Cynic that I am, I cannot help but agree with those commentators who have noted that the Liberal Democrats are being tarnished by the Tories to the latters' gain. In government they are damned if they tow the line, and damned if they don't. Was it a good idea to side with the Tories rather than Labour, I wonder? 2011 looks set for a show-down ... though Labour may need to shed its new leader to capitaise on it.

Unemployment and depressed local economies are in my mind going to feature in the depressing news bulletins of 2011. The government thinks that shedding jobs in the public sector will somehow stimulate the national economy so much so that 330,000 private sector jobs will be generated over the next four years. How? Why? With what resources? If formerly employed local people cannot afford their own homes or to purchase anything more than the basics, how is a local entrepreneur going to find the resources or markets to employ them?

Localism: by that we mean giving local people the power to decide and provide their own priorities and services. Very novel - but isn't that what we choose to do when we a) elect a local council and b) pay their community charges and other taxes? If we are to sweep our own streets (in Chiswick, Chelsea or Westminster ... you're having me on!) or cut the grass and litter pick the parks (in Knightsbridge?), aren't we then entitled to the money back that we are paying the government and council? Where will the expertise come from? Unemployed former apprentices with nothing to do other than use their government-sponsored skills might be tempted, I suppose - but doubt it.

I am no particular fan of Gordon Brown and believe that his government has much to answer for allowing the corporate greed that brought down the economies of the western world. I am certainly no fan either, though, of the current Tory-led coalition of bizarre political thought and dubious economic policy. As each new initiative is announced one cannot help but smell political opportunism and personal interest. For ambitious politicians this must be seasonal bounty.

I fear that the road ahead will be rocky and am grateful that I am not entirely dependent anymore on a future in local government service. I fear for the futures of my younger colleagues and the wider community that is Great Britain: the FTSE 100 may be recovering - but then we must not forget that although housed in the London Stock Exchange, it reflects the global rather than the British economy.