Doncaster Library Cuts

[jonrover]

RobTheRover wrote:

Allow me to take you for a spin forward 6 months in my time machine (some bloke called Wells mentioned one in a book I got out of Rosso library when I was 10 I think)....

As councils up and down the land prepare to shed thousands of workers, just consider the timeline of events.  Most councils will be doing what the local ones are doing, and assessing the voluntary redundancy applications, then determining which of them they can afford (both in terms of financial cost and loss of skills) to let go, then the compulsary redundancies in areas which make losses in delivering key public services, then the bits of bone which have to be cut to come in under budget, as there is no meat left to cut, let alone fat.  Come the end of MArch this will have been done in many cases, with staff on three months notice....

June should be very interesting.  Our summer of discontent?  I can see high levels of civil unrest, as the big chunk of income disappearing from community purses has its knock on effect in local businesses.

Imagine a cross between the student riots and the french picket lines and you wont be a million miles out.  I last protested on the Poll Tax introduction, so coming out of retirement could be an option....

Amen to that Rob. There's a warm up on the 26th March if you fancy it. Surely its worth missing Watford for the cause! Don't be surprised if there's a million march on Hyde Park on the 26th because Unite, my union have plans to offer members free transport in our region, which I have no doubt will be offered country wide. There's potentially 1.2 million from one union! And lets be clear about this, it's not going to take something bigger than the Poll Tax demo to bring this sham government down. Its ours for the taking and we haven't even begun.

But the real problem we face is to get Labour to not cut when they get in power but to chase the lost revenue off the real scroungers in this, the filthy rich and big business. The way the rich find loopholes to avoid paying tax is a disgrace and has to be stopped. I mean if our own chancellor can avoid paying £1.6 million then are we going to sit idly by and let this happen? Only people power can stop this.

BobG has a bit tongue in cheek suggested a revolution a few times on this forum and in my opinion he is cock on. These are our public services and we're still going to pay for them through our taxes even though they are being thrown on a big blue bonfire in the coming months and years. Only a revolution (of sorts!)can stop this. A revolution in the form of an overthrown government and a demand on Labour to turn left again to govern in the interests of its core voters, the working class. Time to get the railways, gas, leccy, ect back under the state and run for the needs of the people who use it instead of being run in the interests of share holders ans executives, subsidised by progressive taxation of the rich and big business. We cannot idly sit by and let the banks off the hook either. They should pay back every penny plus interest, even if it takes 100 years.

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE COMRADES.

[jonrover]

BillyStubbsTears wrote:

CusworthRovers wrote:

Whilst BST may have a point that I share re education and the working class.....I also feel the Libraries are on borrowed time.

A very strong argument for 'no longer fit for purpose' with the advent of technology. It was the same when the seed drill and the spinning jenny were introduced.

Look at all the shops/pubs closing and it will get worse, until these are virtually things of the past. Almost everything is available from the comfort of your own home, cheaper and efficiently. It will not be just pubs and shops neither.

And THAT Cussy is precisely the issue. This is NOT about cheapness and efficiency.

Libraries are a statement of civic collectivity. They offer information services to EVERYONE regardless of ability to pay. They are paid for by the collective, NOT by the individual

We have now had the thick end of half a century of that collective principle being eroded, and replaced by a philosophy that says, if you want it, YOU, INDIVIDUALLY pay for it.

Information IS available on the internet, but it has to be paid for. Where are the free novels that you can (legally) download in the way that you can (legally) borrow them from libraries?

It is all about the commercialisation of information, and the bit-by-bit destruction of the principle that there are some things that SOCIETY pays for, and that we all pay taxes to fund.

This bunch of cnuts in power at the moment are driving through a political revolution. They are using the fig leaf of the deficit to justify a generational shift from collective, tax-funded provision of services, to indivdiual paid for services. It's happening right under our noses and no fcuker seems to care about it. Removing government funding for almost all University courses and telling people to pay for it themselves is one aspect. Closing down libraries is another.

And you think it will stop there? What about the long-term future for the NHS? The BBC? Think about it.

Amen to this an all!

If Cameron and Gideon want a revolution then they can f**king have one.

[jonrover]

I don't know it any of you were at the Coalition of resistance meeting with Tony Benn in Donny in October but a library campaigner and author Alan Gibbons gave an excellent speech about how we should defend libraries amongst other things. Bang on all the way through and very funny in parts, its well worth 10 minutes of your time. His speech starts from 3 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQpv13zXn5E

[BobG]

Thanks for the link Jon. I liked that.

Bob

[Muttley]

jonrover wrote:

Amen to that Rob. There's a warm up on the 26th March if you fancy it. Surely its worth missing Watford for the cause!

Is that 26th February Jon?

[Muttley]

Just checked - it is 26th March, but we've no game that day, presumably an international break (Watford is 26th Feb)

[jonrover]

Muttley wrote:

Just checked - it is 26th March, but we've no game that day, presumably an international break (Watford is 26th Feb)

Sorry, couldn't be arsed to check...sensimilla!

[NigelJ]

Maybe something like this should be arranged...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-12204369

 

[CusworthRovers]

Funnily enough there's been a couple of protests already outside libraries in Cantley and that hotbed of Political unrest...Bawtry

[Filo]

The Mayor`s never taken a book out of a library, so there you have it, that`s why the library`s are closing, the Mayor doesn`t use them, same as the tree felling on the racecourse, the Mayor likes horse racing, so the tree`s had to come down!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/newsid_9386000/9386288.stm

[BillyStubbsTears]

So he's never left the UK.

He's never borrowed a book from a library.

Could he possibly be more of an embarrassing professional Yorkshireman if he tried?

He's been described on the English Democrats website as a \"common-sense\" mayor.

As none other than Albert Einstein once said, \"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.\"

Maybe if the mayor travelled a bit and read a bit he might be a bit less of an ignorant bigot.

[rtid88]

I very very very stupidly voted for this idiot which I am now more then ashamed of doing! The bloke is a grade A idiot! I have signed two petitions so far in regard to this.

My local Library Edenthorpe is one on the hot list for closure to which I take my two young children to regularly and to which they love going to.

Am I know expected to take my children to the town centre one, having to either get the bus into town or be driven rather then walking with my children to the local one, not only educating them with the books in there but also giving them exercise in the process of taking them there!!

Also my wife works in Intake and runs childrens clubs at the Intake library which is also on this list to be shut!
My wifes Grandparents also use this library, are they now expected to go to the town centre library rather then be involved in the community at their local library?

This country is going backwards, it will only get worse with these Tory b@stards in charge.

Like Rob says give it another 4-5 months and this town will be well and truely up the shitter while Cam and Gideon are rubbing their hands together in their Ivory towers!!

[donnyproletarian]

I understand Denaby is on the hit list an area that was identified as an EPA (educational priority area) back in 1968.So much for parity of esteem.Its about time the satelite towns around the dearne valley brought back the urban council as i for one am sick of getting the mushroom treatment from bent politicians in Donny,Barnsley and Rotherham who tink they can treat our people like lepours and dump all there problems on us.

[rtid88]

Well its got the go ahead!! Absolute disgrace, Peter Davies and his cronies should be truely ashamed of themselves!! I hate this town and I hate this country!!

[jucyberry]

Just seen Davies on the BBC news, he really doesn't give a flying fook about the library and what the people really wants does he?

I really hope the people of Donny can rally round to save the libary..

On a much smaller scale we have a community run library in Heacham.. It really does work

(Excuse all the reallys I've had a glass of wine and am feeling suprisingly mellow but a trifle illiterate)...

He comes across as a t**t tbh. Peter Davies I mean.

[coventryrover]

Utter utter disgrace.

I used to love going to Thorne library as a kid.  Not only to get books out but I enjoyed the feel of the place, it had soul.

I know Thorne has a new library so should be fairly \"safe\".  But how can we begin to deny our kids the joys we had?  I thought the governments aim was to increase childhood literacy.


To be honest I am feckin livid for the people of Donny but I guess the majority who voted for your mayor wont give a flying f as long as immigration is controlled and gay marches are banned.  Me thinks the priorities are all so wrong.


As one of my favourite bands wrote


Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
But what price now for a shallow piece of dignity