The Future of Libraries.
Last year I visited Cardiff Central Library for a meeting with librarians and publishers to present and showcase future books. I was supposed to be ‘selling’ Something About a Bear” in 5 minutes, but found myself instead saying thank you to the librarians who were there. Libraries changed my life, played a huge part in making me the artist and writer I am today. They also allow me to reach out to children who, like myself, feel unsure of themselves, uncomfortable in their own skins and maybe a bit scared of life by giving me a platform, a stage, so that I can say to kids, “look, when I was your age I couldn’t read well, and only the love of stories helped me to find the way.” It sometimes helps.
Anyway…
now…..
Cardiff Central library, voted one of the top six libraries in the world is now going through a second year of budget cuts. Last year they lost the top floor, a quarter of their staff, and closed one day a week. Next year it is to become a Super Hub losing two more floors when Marland House (the housing benefit and council tax centre) moves into the building. This means the adult section of the library will become a fringe activity around a busy city advice centre and a huge proportion of stock will be lost to make space for it.
Cardiff will lose 7 branch libraries (including a newly restored Carnegie building). With five more years of government cuts planned, the future of the library service looks pretty grim. The trend is to ‘hand buildings over to the community’ and use unpaid staff. What’s most concerning is not just the job losses but that the public library service is being dismantled. Once stock and buildings go, we won’t get them back. Hundreds of books have already been weeded out and library staff have been banned by the council from discussing budget cuts with the media, the public or making any kind of reference to this subject on social media.
This is one of the scariest things. That library staff are banned from talking to the media. They are in fear of their jobs. Surely it should be council staff who stand against free speech who should be in fear of their position for even suggesting that people who work in libraries are forbidden from speaking out against destruction of the library services? It all seems very Alice in Wonderland.
We are living in a time of austerity and many more people need a warm place to go to in the day. Libraries are the only free space where we can meet in the winter. We have a right to participate in cultural life and to have access to books and computers for learning and leisure. These things are essential for a democracy. If we don’t put up a fight for these libraries now, we won’t get another chance.
But libraries aren’t just about meeting places, mother and toddler groups etc. Libraries still hold a store of knowledge. They provide access to the internet for many who do not have wifi or computers at home. Librarians help people to learn to navigate through this marvellous ocean of knowledge.
The love letters were described at the time as being ‘despicable’ by the Mayor of Liverpool. I want to be despicable now.
Be part of history. Defend our library service in our capital city. Make the council provide a comprehensive service as the1964 Libraries and Museums Act demands. Write your love library letter to the leader of Cardiff council before 8 January. Exercise your freedom of speech by discussing library cuts freely on Twitter, Facebook, Walesonline and letters to the papers. Show solidarity with library staff who have been banned from doing so.
Address your letters/emails to
Leader of Cardiff council
Cllr Phil Bale
Leader’s Office
Room 525
County Hall
Cardiff, CF10 4UW
Tel 07581421282
with copies to:
Deputy Leader
Cllr Sue Lent
7 Pen-Y-Wain Place
Roath
Cardiff
CF24 4GA
Tel 02920 493980 / 07790962764
and:
Cllr Peter Bradbury (libraries portfolio)
10 Yarrow Close
Cardiff
CF5 4QS
02920 591735
I will write because I can. And one of the reasons I can is because I had access to so many books through the library system when I was a child.
We have taken away student grants and burdened our young people with debt. Let’s not be the generation that closes libraries.
If you are a teacher, a child, a parent, f you are a bookseller, a publisher, a writer, poet, artist, maker of music, of design, if you are a doctor, a surgeon, a cleaner, a taxi driver, if ever a library has done anything for you, your parents, your children then write a letter. Not a letter of anger, but a letter of love, to your library and make copies to send to those who would try to govern us. God alone knows they need some help if these are the decisions they come up with through their uncreative short term thinking.
Write.
Because you can.
And if you want to leave a copy of your letter here too in the comments box then please do. And tweet and facebook and encourage as many people as you can to do the same.
We can make a change, one person at a time. And if we all join together it can be a big change.
This is my letter. It’s to all libraries, not just Cardiff. I will be sending a covering letter to each person on the list above.
Dear Library,
I am writing this letter in part to thank you but also to tell you what you mean and have meant to me in my life. My thanks to you are long overdue. I have been so busy in my life I have not had time before to stop and think, too busy earning a living, raising a family. It is only now that you are under threat that I have begun to realize how much I owe to you. It is not impossible to imagine that without you I would not be sitting here now, writing at all, were it not for you, as it is quite possible that I would not be able to write.
I learned the basics of writing at school but was slow to really grasp the trick of it all. At home we had so few books, maybe a handful. My father was a policeman, my mother a housewife and both had left school at the age of 14 to work. It did not occur to me as a child that we couldn’t afford books as money isn’t something many small children have to think about or try to understand. Certainly it is possible that both my parents grew up in houses with no books.
But I did have a library ticket. A small, beige, cardboard wallet, smaller than a credit card, into which would slip stamped cards with their own unique coding as I took six books a week out from the library.
Now, thinking back to the child that I was I remember the excitement of choosing and taking home such an incredible wealth of books each week. And this was how I really learned to read, frowned at by my grandmother who thought it a lazy pastime, encouraged by my parents who wanted a good education for me and my sister so we could make our way in the world.
What I discovered within the walls of the library was a future unlimited by class expectations. First I learned to read, prowling along the shelves, sometimes free, at other times guided by a librarian whose knowledge of books was so astonishing. As a child I thought the men and women who worked in the libraries lived there, owned all the books and were so generous to share them with us.
Hundreds of pounds worth of books came home with me every month and were returned and exchanged, far more than our family could possibly afford, from this place of common wealth, feeding my habit of literacy. I used the public library and the school library with equal enthusiasm.
I loved to see the journeys the books had made, each date stamp telling its own story. Some books had been wallflowers, sitting on the shelf for months, others so popular they had to be ordered and set aside. If sometimes i took out books far beyond my understanding, or just for the joy of looking at the pictures you never judged me. And all the time I learned and grew in understanding. And I loved you.
As a teenager when I was going through such changes, awakening in understanding you came to mean so much more. A safe place away from home. More than this. So important. My parents wanted me to work in a shop. My teachers thought I could work in a museum. I wanted to be an artist. In your walls I found books about art, artists. I learned about primitive art, the Renaissance, Impressionists, fell in love with Van Gogh, learned about early photography, war reporting, art and politics, even that women could become artists. Imagine. Huge expensive, lavishly illustrated art books came home with me carrying with them the scent of the library, the smell of knowledge and nurtured my teenage dreams. All this I found within your walls.
At art college there was still more. Now I discovered a library almost entirely devoted to art. I would say I only attained my place at college because of you, because you gave me access to books, knowledge and through that confidence.
You changed my life, opened my horizons, enabled me to fulfill my ambitions.
Now, as an illustrator, writer, artist and photographer I often find myself working in libraries. I’ve worked in city libraries and small branch libraries, school libraries. I have exhibited in The National Library of Wales, Harringay, Balham and other libraries. Cardiff library was a joy to visit, but so was Triorci, tucked away in the valleys. I have found that you have changed. You now have bright, open buildings, lower shelves, are warm and light, almost always busy and seldom as hushed as you once were. Can you imagine how I felt when I was asked by Milford Library if my paintings could be used to decorate the walls? Huge reproductions standing like great pages in the library. I gave them freely, proud to be able to be a part of the library. Can you imagine what it feels like for me to now walk through your doors and find books i have written, illustrated on your shelves. But better still, can you imagine what it feels like when after reading in a library a child asks you how can they join, how can they take home the books. Can you imagine how this might lead to their horizons suddenly opening. These are the teachers, doctors, librarians, lawyers, surgeons, writers, dancers and singers of the future. To help them to join you is the best of all things. Seeing that burning desire for books in them.
But I realize now that I have taken you for granted for far too long, as we often do with things, people we love so much. I thought others would stand in guardianship over you for future generations. That the investment of decades, in books, buildings and librarians would be built upon, that others also knew your worth, appreciated all that you are. Now I see that you are under threat of cuts, have already had so much cut back and I want to tell you how important you are to me, to the future of the country in which I live and even with all the learning I have I cannot find the words.
So, how can I help others to see your true value, not in terms of assets, but in terms of heart? Only by asking everyone to whom a library has ever been important in their life to send a letter, or a card, even just a few lines, in support of what you are. You, who hold so much within your walls. Not just in Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool, Hull, Huddersfield, Bicester, Oxford, Cheltenham, Durham, Exeter and not just writers, artists, but all people, young and old.
You were founded years ago by people who realized that giving universal access to knowledge to everyone made for a stronger, healthier country. We should love you more, protect your future, invest in you, because each and every local library is a part of a national treasure.
You changed my life. My wish is that I can now do something to change yours, in the only way I know how. By writing.
with love
Jackie Morris
There is an online petition you can add your signature too.
From The public Library by Thomas Greenwood 1890
Can’t speak to the public or media? Outrageous.
I have put up posters in libraries about booky things I’m doing. Would it be possible to have an informational poster to hand to librarians to put up, a poster designed by authors/illustrators, with emotive language and cold facts, to get round the ban?
I sent a letter to Liverpool, and will do one for Cardiff.
There’s a massive freedom of speech problem going on here. Language used is ‘hunting down’ librarians who opposed the cuts. They are silenced. Not sure they would be allowed to put up posters.
Perhaps someone could start a face book page ..”I’m not a librarian but …”
“Voice of Libraries” or something more appropriate were supporters of libraries can spread the news?
Love what you are doing and will share… Libraries are being pummeled here too
Public library staff are bound by a code of conduct and can only really speak through their union representatives, see my blog http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/gagged-library-workers.html?m=1
I liked your post.
However, it’s not only librarians who aren’t allowed to speak to press or any form of media. This rule applies to all council workers. All media enquiries have to go through to their press department. This is partly to prevent newspapers phoning up and misquoting a staff member or getting their facts wrong.
In fact, this policy is incredibly common in the corporate world. There are some large, very famous businesses I’ve worked for in Wales which are so strict that it’s a bit much. In these places they have things written in your contract that state that you are not allowed to post certain opinions on social networking sites or blogs. If you post anything that can even be interpreted as negative, or corrosive to the company, you can be sacked for it. Even if you were actually referring to something else, or if you didn’t explicitly mention the said company, it’s enough for you to get into trouble.
I don’t think most councils go that far, but they are sensitive to who talks to the press. They know that their decisions are unpopular, and don’t like the fact that their employees could be seen as publicly disagreeing with them. I think they try to give an impression of an united front, which is quite funny because the council has hundreds of workers – they’re obviously not all going to agree with the CEO over every decision.
From reading about these cuts that are happening to libraries, it feels like councils and the government want to get rid of these pesky things like the NHS and public libraries.
Someone I know worked in a library in Wales. She said that if you want to help save the libraries – use them! I borrow a silly amount of books at times and often request books from other libraries. It’s normal for me to have 6 books out at a time. It’s these figures that management look at when deciding these cuts.
Indeed.
And yes, to using libraries.
I have been designing library cards to try and encourage new people to join libraries. Also did a post in the summer for the Guardian about how to join after one child asked me how you took books out form the library and how much it cost to join the club.
We need to form a huge library clan.
One of the things I saw about libraries was that you should be able to request any book at all from the library. It was always my understanding that this is possible now.
Love them or loose them and to keep them, use them. But it may be too late. And it’s librarians I think, who are the true value of libraries.
Yikes, this is scary Jackie! in Australia we still have a well funded and lively library system but we followed the UK down the path of selling off the post offices over 20 years ago… libraries provide solace for the soul, stimulation for the mind & a quiet place for contemplation now that all the churches lock their doors for fear of vandals.
[…] little about what is going on in Cardiff. Author and artist Jackie Morris has a better idea, and here is her blog post about it. There are names and addresses of who to write to, but you have less […]
Very sad. Would letters from the US or other countries be of help?
Dear Mr Bale,
I am a children’s writer and would not be such if I had not had access to a mobile library service as a child, and a monthly visit to the grand old mess that was Winchester public Library.
I have seen the wonder of Cardiff’s new library, having spent a day there a year or so back, and I thought it marvellous that such a thing could have been built, now, in a time of austerity. I thought it showed a vision and an understanding of the value that public libraries bring to a society. When James Reckitt (Reckitt and Coleman) created the public libraries and reading rooms around Hull, he could see that knowledge lifted people from poverty both physically and spiritually. They offered freedom of thought, of ideas – they allowed people to stand on the shoulders of giants. Of course I understand that you are making difficult choices, but surely libraries matter more than flowers, or new bins or pot holes – they are the essence of a civilised society.
I urge you to think again.
Fleur Hitchcock.
Thanks Fleur
[…] – serious danger – everyone needs to write a love letter to their library and check out Jackie Morris’ blog for details of who to write to. OK – so you’ve never been to Cardiff – never seen […]
Well said indeed, Jackie. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Here is the letter I have just sent:
Dear Cllr Phil Bale,
My Dad lives in Cardiff, and we are regular visitors to the city. I will be performing at the Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival in April, along with my husband, the author and illustrator Thomas Docherty.
Reading your Leader’s Blog, I was struck by your mention of “the overwhelming sense of pride that people feel in the city” – a pride which you obviously share. One of the things that make Cardiff such a great city is the fantastic library service. My husband has done a lot of workshops at Cardiff central library, with schools whose children often don’t have access to books at home.
I am sure that you are as passionately committed as I am to the idea of preserving libraries as a free, public space, staffed by professionals, where people of any age can discover and explore worlds beyond their own through books. Libraries give people the freedom to choose for themselves what they want to read, and as such they are a cornerstone of any democracy. Children – or adults – who can’t afford to buy books need to have access to well stocked, professionally run libraries if we are to have any hope at all of creating a fairer society with any kind of social mobility. In these times of austerity, the library is even more important, as it provides both a haven, and a chance for people to grow, learn and acquire vital new skills.
Having used the library service throughout my life (I practically lived in our local library as a child, as my own children do now), I am living testament to the proof that libraries can and do make a difference to people’s life chances, as well as greatly enhancing people’s quality of life.
I understand that Cardiff is due to lose 7 branch libraries, including a newly restored Carnegie building, as well as losing two more floors of its central library (one already having been lost); a library which has been voted one of the top six in the world (now that’s something to be proud of).
Once a library’s stock has been depleted, it can never be replaced. Once an experienced, trained librarian has been made redundant or replaced by a volunteer, the skills she or he brought to the job are lost forever. Once a library has been closed or significantly reduced in size, the community it serves has lost one of its most precious and vital resources – not just for now, but for the city’s entire future.
You are clearly immensely proud of your city; I would urge you, as Leader of the Council, to make the right decision and to preserve Cardiff’s libraries as they are, for the sake of everyone who lives in or visits Cardiff, both today and in the future.
Many thanks for taking the time to read this.
Yours sincerely,
Helen Docherty, author of The Snatchabook (winner, Oldham Brilliant Books 2014)
Thanks Helen.
Here’s my love letter to the library
Dear Library,
You were the first house I dared to walk into alone. You were my first love. I was a shy child. So shy I dared not speak to people. I hid behind sofas, I did not talk at school to anyone. I found the world a bit bewildering and frightening but I had a love. A love of stories and books. I was one of the lucky ones. My house was full of books and my mum took me to join the library very young.
Every Saturday we got the bus into town. She went shopping. It scared me as there were so many people in the market and they all wanted to talk to me and I was scared I would lose her. One day when I was about 6 she asked if I wanted to stay in the library while she did her shopping. Oh the utter joy. I wouldn’t be left anywhere alone but the library was quiet and beautiful and safe and full of my friends. The stories I loved. I used to curl up in the corner of the library and read. I was allowed to read anything I wanted. I was not constricted to the children’s section or the novels or picture books. They let me wander those huge streets and alleyways of books. So many wonderful spines shining down at me tempting me. No one judged if it was the right age for me or if I couldn’t read all the words or understand everything. Sometimes I looked at the pictures in the art books, sometimes I read the medical journals. Mostly I read stories. Wonderful stories and I allowed to read any story i wanted, not like at school where they had a scheme I’d finished but had to wait for the others to catch up.
I read. I read John Steinbeck’s the Red Pony when i was 6. I was entranced. I read all the children’s classics but I also read the likes of George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh.And poetry. I found writers and poets who understood me and oh my goodness my life was transported and transformed and I disappeared in books but appeared in life.
As an awkward teenager who was frightened of playgrounds and bullies and balls, I retreated to be a school librarian. Again, the joy of books and wandering the shelves finding new loves and new ideas and they gave me the confidence to speak and talk and to be me.
Libraries saved me. I love them.
When I had my son, I took him to the library of course. He loved choosing books and the librarian let him take out books from the adult section of our local village library once he had done the children’s section all through. He was a reference boy. Wanted facts and cars and not stories. They let him take out whatever he wanted. They understood him and did not judge.
One day he asked me how much the books cost to buy. I told him they were free. His eyes widened and he said you mean there is a house of books and you can just go in and borrow them and you don’t have to have money? Whoa! That is amazing. He could not believe there could be such a thing. Trust. Trust to borrow a book and bring it back. Our world is full of the lack of trust. It makes a difference that you can be trusted with a book.
He has borrowed his maximum books all his life. He still does now studying art. He borrows audio books as he is dyslexic and struggles with long texts. He used the internet there to apply for jobs when he had nothing and no money. They gave him somewhere to go and something to do when he needed it most and that helped him to become who he is now and he will give it back ten fold to society. And that is the good thing about libraries. They look after, they care, they inspire and give hope and help create a good society. They are often the first thing to be cut when money is needed to be saved but it is a false economy. Without libraries, we lose so much. We lose things that cannot be gained back. Times are hard. But when you only have a penny, you buy a rose. A book is a rose. Protect the libraries and you will help inspire the future generations who can help us save money. You will help people find hope and jobs which will save the council money in other areas.
My aunt is an a&e doctor. I told her she had the most important job in the world. She told me education was. She said she patched people when things went wrong. If people had education, they wouldn’t go so wrong. Libraries are education. Please don’t cut them, you lose too much.
Libraries are what make us a civilised nation. They show that we as a society are thoughtful, we appreciate education, we care. We care about people and society and citizenship. We trust. We trust to lend people books. Reading is precious. Libraries are precious. I love them. They were my first love, my son’s first love.
I want them to be there for his children one day. I want them to feel that absolute wide eyed love and joy and awe when they realise they are free to choose books and take them home. And then come back for more.
I love you libraries. I have made Wales my home. I hope the beautiful Cardiff library is there to take my grandchildren to. Please don’t die library, I love you too much to let go.
Oh. You made me cry. So true.
I made myself cry too! Good company to cry in xx
We live in a world where everything today has a monetary value, and has to be cost effective, some things cannot be valued in terms of money, accessible knowledge for all citizens within our society is beyond measure, I am reminded of the quote “bread and roses” we not only need to care for our physical selves but we also need to feed our minds, it is through reading the words of strangers that we come to understand how much we all have in common, that we are all connected to each other, how we need to love understand care and be tolerant and treasure our beautiful planet. Human beings and our world are what matter, not money it is a silly system we could always create a more egalitarian system? Well maybe one day lol jackie smithX
[…] ← The Future of Libraries. […]
Hello,
Have you seen this campaign on 38 degrees to save Cardiff libraries? If you did a post on it, I’m sure they would get more signatures.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-cardiff-library-service
Thanks for this. Have signed, tweeted, will add link into main blog post. And then get on with some work!
thanks so much, reminds me how much this about love, culture, health and communities. x
Dear Cardiff Council
I am very saddened to read about the possibility of the wonderful library in Cardiff being reduced even more due to cuts in the next budget. Are these cuts really necessary and what might the costs be to the people if this does happen? Libraries are really important – they give people the chance to read books they might never read or be able to afford to buy to read, which is a wonderful thing. I have learnt so much from reading and it has enriched my life with knowledge and insight. The cuts would mean that people have less access to books – and books are what empowers us sometimes because we want to learn new things or because we are studying and the free library service gives students the chance to read with no outlay. In these days of dumbing down it will mean education is affected even more and this is something we must not let happen in our society. I understand you have difficulties with your budget but diminishing the library will have a higher cost than money itself – it will take a very precious thing away from the people.
I love my library – it is welcoming and there is no pressure to buy – the books are free which still amazes me today! I can browse and look at as many books as I want and feel relaxed and at home – where else can you do that? The books I have taken out recently have been really insightful and helpful, but I would never have found these books in Waterstones or Amazon, I only found them because my library is a friendly place where no one pressures me, and where the biggest freedom is knowing I can ‘afford’ to take out a book and read it!
Please Cardiff Council stop the reduction of the library services because there will be no going back if you do and the importance of books and learning is so huge the effect will be long lasting and irreversible.
With regards
Wendy
Active Library User
Colchester, Essex
Pupils should be taught to:
– develop pleasure in reading, motivation to read, vocabulary and understanding by:
listening to and discussing a wide range of poems, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently
being encouraged to link what they read or hear to their own experiences
becoming very familiar with key stories, fairy stories and traditional tales, retelling them and considering their particular characteristics
Dear Councillor,
Do you recognise this? It is from the Department of Education guidance on reading in primary school. The motif is repeated in the expectations from year one onwards.
When you close the library door you shut out the family from that home. You know the one, it has no books; the parents don’t have the money. Or maybe they were alienated from school and need help to share reading with their child.
When you close the library door you empty the shelves, devalue reading, silence the book groups, deny the cold and old their daily newspaper; their opportunity to access the internet.
When you close the library door you limit the schools from that wide range of books they need. The author to be from the research they crave and the imaginative from their daily food.
Why would you close the library door?
Yours truly,
Charlotte Hills.
Thank you.
hello Jackie firstly I would like to say could you please have patience with me, like you I was born in 1961, so we have that in common it is only worth mentioning as we have lived in similar times, I also struggled at school, it was a very painful experience and it was not until I was 40 years old that I was educationally statement end as severely dyslexic, and that only happened as my employer a local authority wanted to prove that I did not have a legally recognised disability that they had to acomadate (the reality was that they never did, they continued to try and disprove its contents) I could never afford such an expensive outlay, but I have been furnished with an important document that has empowered me. I grew up to be an adult who was virtually illiterate, strangely I mastered the skill to read but not to write, I believe this was due to the fact that the words were on a page and were not going anywhere, it did not matter how long it tock for me to achieve reading a page within a book I just had to be determined., no matter how hard the battle was I wanted to win. The treasure of information, knowledge, history, ideas, the whole world in fact awaited for me to unfold within the wonder of a book. like you both my parents left school at a ridiculously young age
, they were merely children when they had to face the vigours of a working life which is often restrictive and brutal for ordinary working people, money was also in very short supply through out my childhood. loved as I was I was not an indulged child, as children are today, there just was not the means to do so, besides there was a much more practical attitude to childhood in the 60s. No fussing, with a go and entertain yourselves attitude so books were a gateway to the most amazing magical phenomenal world full of possibilities, travelling by means of the imagination is the best way to travel a wonderful quote, liberies were the most incredible places on earth and a visit was so exciting, there was nothing quiet like coming home with all your books and taking time to go through them all. Liberties have so enriched my life in so many ways, I can never thank them enough. Sorry I have rattled on the point being that reading your letter to thank the liberties in your life, made me cry and made me think. Libraries are important portals to travel, palaces of imence knowledge with the power to transform lives where all are welcome irrespective of background and who you are. We should be living within a society that endeavours to empower all of its citizens. We must move away from the current creation of a two teared class system where there exist an underclass of so called people of no worth and the protected super rich, this HG Wells nightmare must not be allowed to happen. we as a community must stand up and campaign for the kind of society that we want. I want to live in a democracy that values all its citizens and endeavours to give equality of oportunity to all, which also attempts to eradicate some of the horrors that true economic poverty inflicts upon the individual and society at large. We were so lucky to grow up in that post war golden period in many ways, filled with so much hope and posibilities we should want the same for the present and future generations. So Jackie thankyou so much for reminding me of how important libraries are. I apologise for going on and on, I am shush a chatter box, never know when to stop, and my writing is not good, but I have worked hard to achieve this level of literacy which would not have been possible without libraries. If you read this thankyou for taking the time and barring with me wishing you and yours happiness lol jackie a visitor to your web pages X
Thank you for this. I think one of our problems is that the people who make decisions about this have achieved a certain wealth. They do not see themselves as rich, because no matter how much money you have there are always people better off. They don’t use libraries any more and many haven’t been in one for years. They don’t see how they have moved with the times. They don’t understand that the surgeon who operates on them in 20 years time may be the child of the single parent reading today because of the library.
Thankyou for your reply I think that people with wealth or who achieve wealth live in a bubble, inspite of there abundance of things and opportunities in life they often lack insight, they are so use to having what they want, when they want, that they cannot comprehend the issues surrounding the limitations upon most people’s lives, we no longer live in enlightened times, as we did as children, (I regard the 60s as part of the post war period) it appears that those who have power within our society, there only concern is money and self serving. That perspective lacks insight, vision, and imagination, people are our true wealth no matter who they are what there personal circumstance and libraries our temples of knowledge should be accesable to all irrespective of financial means. Let’s hope we have an awakening of people power to fight for the kind of more compassionate insightful society that we all really deserve to live within. it is snowing in Wales today, keep warm be happy, lolX
It’s warm here where i live. Well, comparative to rest of country. Seldom snows here and only occasional frost. But beautiful, rugged. Today at the beach the light was elegant and on the way home I saw curlew and dark skies. It seems today as if the day has hardly woken up.
I hope there is an awakening. I am sick of being shafted by self serving politicians who don’t know their arses from their elbows. Do you know in UK when a politician looses his/her seat ( because they have been voted out of office), they are given £33 000 tax free as a resettlement grant. Imagine if everyone made redundant achieved that. Who gave them this right. Well, we voted them in and they made it happen. So I guess we could say we did. I would like to see that removed.
Hello jackie wow! Gosh! I had no idea about the financial compensation to loosing your parliamentary seat- I am shocked, well this reinforces the idea that a politician should earn the equivalent of the average wage, and accountability for all PMs to ensure that they keep there electoral promises. I fully understand your perspective upon self serving career polititions pinning there own pockets, with the breaking up of the welfare state, so many people have got there sticky fingers in the public purse, it’s devastating to watch. However I am a great believer in Democracy, it’s a case of us all fighting to plug the gaps, to make shore that our parliamentary system works in the best interests of the population and not a small over indulged minority.
I must say I am very jealouse of your walk in the beautiful green rugged Wales, I love to watch your pictures of your cats and dogs going for walks on your blog, I live on the outskirts of. london on my walks I often spot red double deckers, wait for flashing green men at crossings, and visit local charity shops for bargains, your part of Wales sounds like a hidden Shangri La corner, be happy and warm whatever the weather lolX
[…] letter for Cardiff library. With so many libraries threatened with closure I think we should all write to our libraries and our councillors, so that the libraries know we value them and the councillors understand that […]
[…] letter for Cardiff library. With so many libraries threatened with closure I think we should all write to our libraries and our councillors, so that the libraries know we value them and the councillors understand that […]
[…] I had asked in a previous blog posting for people to demonstrate against the cuts by writing to Cardiff councillors to say what the libraries mean to them. Fight the cuts, but fight with words, not with riots. Because we can. We have a voice in this modern world. Pheobe’s letter was so strong that I gave it a blog post of its own. She stood and she read infront of the crowd, so well. Phoebe took the time out from homework to write a letter, hobbled across Cardiff to the stage to read it. Please, use this link to find addresses, add your voice. Send your letter too. […]