Re: A sign of the times
 

Its estimated that it costs well over £100,000 to keep a library open, now some libraries only hire our a few hundred books a year. You are telling me that its cost effective to do that? You are telling me that the £100,000 for each shitty little regional library up and down the country could not be better spent by establishing better libraries in schools? Or better internet access for poorer families? Mobile libraries? Postal libraries? Heating a building and keeping two or three people stood there for just a couple of books a day is a pointless waste of time and resources....

Re: A sign of the times
 

Yeah they were talking about this on the Politics Show last sunday and some Labour Denier was on trying to answer the question as to why it was that it was predominantly Labour councils who were closing essential services, they were accused of political machinations and posturing and their reply was "Blah blah, cuts too severe... blah blah, same old Tories, blah blah, its not our fault... blah blah..."

What I don't understand is why these same Labour councils don't just slash their own wages and trim their top execs salaries? The head of Manchester council gets more per annum than the Pm.... Yeah I know the PM has perks and bonuses but so does the council leader, it just doesn't make sense to me to pay a council leader nearly £200,000 when their council is wasting millions of their budget.

Re: A sign of the times
 

43% of council leaders earn more than the PM, they have had fantastic wage increases over the last few years. Meanwhile the workers are having their wages trimmed, and loads laid off. Whatever happened to "We're all in this together"?:rofl: Lead by example? And have you seen the list of the zillions of stupid new jobs Labour invented, things like Walking Officer (or something like that) 35k a year, 'promoting healthy weight' adviser, 41K

Re: A sign of the times
 

I lived in some of those ‘shitty’ little libraries when I was growing up and most of my knowledge in life came from there. I’m unable to compare them to the internet or the use of electronic books as an alternative learning source, even though I use both now, the times are too different.

The only thing I can usefully comment on is what I observe from the young people around me. They don’t seem to read as much and their attention span is diabolically short. They might accidentally click on something by George Orwell, but after a few seconds it’s back to Warlord or speaking to their pals on Facebook.

I’m just as bad. I’m on chapter seven of a brilliant book which is lying within reach, but so far I’ve checked my emails, read the news from around the world, and now I’m posting this after reading the comment from Matt.

I would be better off in some shitty library reading something from an intellectual giant of the past.

Re: A sign of the times
 

Its mad.... Devon County Council were advertising for a Banksman last year, £21,000 for someone to drive around in a nice new Ford Ranger and clear leaves from storm drains. Thats all he does, I know this because we have a local Banksman around here and we take the piss out of him because he picks the best places to stop and have a coffee... he is always parked up.... nice work if you can get it eh?


Its mad that people actually continue to defend this sort of behavior, down in Plymouth the Works guys were reprimanded, not sacked, just told off, for going across the road to a building supplier and buying lead from them, which they would then drive to the scrap yard and sell.... I kid you not.... and if you talk to anyone who has ever had anything to do with the councils, I used to do contract fencing for them in Sussex, you hear similar stories, up and down the country.... little wonder we are in so much shit really is it?

Re: A sign of the times
 

My point is though.... does it HAVE to be a shitty little library? Why cant it be some other option?

Re: A sign of the times
 

I haven't been into a library nor a post office for 40 years. Might as well close them all.

Re: A sign of the times
 

what if you ever want to post back those books which are 40 years overdue:D

Re: A sign of the times
 

Post offices are very different, there is absolutely no proof they are any less popular now than they ever were, in fact in many areas its becoming a real lifeline... libraries are just a good place to nick really unusual books from.

Re: A sign of the times
 

It´s a long, long time since I have been in a bank, I used telephone banking when it first came out, then online banking, so provided there were a few cash points somewhere, you could close them for me. ;) Our library does seem very well supported, I was amazed by the number of young children all sat around in a circle of chairs actually reading books. Not Kindles or laptops but real paper books! :) And as I said, all the computers being used as well. Lots of elderly still seems to gather there as well to get their large print books, it seems a meeting place for them, a focal point. :)

Re: A sign of the times
 

Well I've seen sub Post Offices that were empty when I walked in. I've never seen an empty library. Unless you can provide evidence to the contrary, your argument lack logic. Although, come to think about it - can't we open joint Post Office-Libraries???

Interesting how 1000s of jobs are now being cut, yet the defence is now "oh, we're getting rid of the odd 'NON-JOB' so it's alright". That'll be a comfort to the librarians, teachers, care assistants, road-sweepers etc who are now on the dole. Still, yes, the funny-sounding jobs are being cut too. Report - Hundreds of Lollipop Ladies to be laid off (60 in Northamptonshire alone)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-laid-off.html

Re: A sign of the times
 

Well the reality is Libraries are being cut, not because of any false argument the likes of RM uses that "they're not being used", but because they cost money, which is in short supply. It just seems a pity that a workaround hasn't been found in some cases - perhaps allow a coffee shop or an employment agency to open in the premises and pay rent to help out. Or charge more for lending books.

Re: A sign of the times
 

Well, it's my choice as I opened the topic to talk about rising local taxes in Spain, and now it's talking about something that has no place in the Spanish forum .... English libraries.

Thanks for taking it completely off topic :zzz:

Closed

Re: A sign of the times
 

Labours obsession with public sector jobs has resulted in a 13 year neglect of private sector investment, and we can see that with places like Middlesborough, 43% of the entire workforce is employed in the public sector, thousands of jobs were created by the council et al yet only 108 were private sector jobs... so naturally when the cuts come they will be brutal, but what do we do? Keep rewarding the waste? Keep telling them that its OK to spend our tax money as they want and don't worry about accountability? No one denies that the Expenses Row was a worthy cause yet no one cares about the billions wasted by councils up and down the country... Labour were brilliant at doing it, any political party that decided it would be a good idea to fund the likes of John Prescot to the tune of £2 million a year deserves every amount of critisism they draw...

Steve, you can give me all sorts of links, you can offer me all sorts of media reports, the cold simple truth is we are in a mess and at least the Lib Con gov is trying to do something about it, only the other day Ed Balls (one of the men in charge of the "sinking ship") was on Jeremy Vine denying that there was ever a problem... he even compared our economy prior to crash to that of Greece and Spain/Portugal.... that is the ignorance and arrogance we are facing if they ever lie their way back into power...