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Feb. 8th, 2011 12:39 pmI've always found it hard to listen to the Manic Street Preacher's A Design for Life, merely because it's so cutting and brutally evocative of class conflict in Britain. I could barely even get through this excellent article in which Nicky Wire of the Manics writes in defence of British libraries. And now the first lines of that song are on repeat in my head:
Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now
For a shallow piece of dignity?
The line libraries gave us power is a reference to an inscription above an old library in Wales: Knowledge is Power.
I remember that Bill Bryson wrote about how in the UK, you can find working-class people with encyclopaedic knowledge of the arts, people on benefits who visit museums (our musuems are free) and libraries and, while poor, remain well-read.
There's a fabulous secondhand bookshop in Liverpool which I often visit. You can find rough people in there, pensioners, students, people on low incomes who search for books on old film stars, history and 18th century French poetry. There's always a discussion going on with the owner, about anything from politics to an anecdote about Judy Garland and a demented visit to the city.
My father has always loved libraries and spends time reading there. The thrill when I finally got my own library card as a child, picking out all those books and ploughing through them, was amazing. I still love libraries and slipping into one to while away time reading the literary criticism or historical biography section is one of life's simple pleasures. They're wonderful things, libraries. They're underrated, bastions of geekage and knowledge. What they are not is unnecessary.
And then along come the ConDems. It's not enough that:
* University fees are to go through the stratosphere
* Lifelong tenancy in council homes is to end
* Disabled people are to face further means testing*
* VAT has risen
* The NHS is facing cuts
* Rail and air travel has risen
* Motability is under scrutiny
Now they want to do away with libraries! Drastic cuts are urged; we must save money. We must protect the bankers and the rich from sharing the tax burden.
You take away knowledge from the people, and what do we have left? In that biography of Robespierre I have just finished, he advocated again and again for education and transparency to the people. You give them knowledge, you give them power. You give them the ability to decide for themselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it means you get your head chopped off.
If Cameron has his way with these constant cuts and war on education, the working class will finally be exactly what he privately already thinks of them: a clueless, ill-educated burden there to be taken advantage of.
I hate him. I absolutely fucking hate him. We need to do something.
*My dad, who has terminal cancer, actually received a letter asking him why he was still claiming for the cancer. He 'phoned the letter writer to express his deepest apologies for not being dead sooner.
Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now
For a shallow piece of dignity?
The line libraries gave us power is a reference to an inscription above an old library in Wales: Knowledge is Power.
I remember that Bill Bryson wrote about how in the UK, you can find working-class people with encyclopaedic knowledge of the arts, people on benefits who visit museums (our musuems are free) and libraries and, while poor, remain well-read.
There's a fabulous secondhand bookshop in Liverpool which I often visit. You can find rough people in there, pensioners, students, people on low incomes who search for books on old film stars, history and 18th century French poetry. There's always a discussion going on with the owner, about anything from politics to an anecdote about Judy Garland and a demented visit to the city.
My father has always loved libraries and spends time reading there. The thrill when I finally got my own library card as a child, picking out all those books and ploughing through them, was amazing. I still love libraries and slipping into one to while away time reading the literary criticism or historical biography section is one of life's simple pleasures. They're wonderful things, libraries. They're underrated, bastions of geekage and knowledge. What they are not is unnecessary.
And then along come the ConDems. It's not enough that:
* University fees are to go through the stratosphere
* Lifelong tenancy in council homes is to end
* Disabled people are to face further means testing*
* VAT has risen
* The NHS is facing cuts
* Rail and air travel has risen
* Motability is under scrutiny
Now they want to do away with libraries! Drastic cuts are urged; we must save money. We must protect the bankers and the rich from sharing the tax burden.
You take away knowledge from the people, and what do we have left? In that biography of Robespierre I have just finished, he advocated again and again for education and transparency to the people. You give them knowledge, you give them power. You give them the ability to decide for themselves. Sometimes it works, sometimes it means you get your head chopped off.
If Cameron has his way with these constant cuts and war on education, the working class will finally be exactly what he privately already thinks of them: a clueless, ill-educated burden there to be taken advantage of.
I hate him. I absolutely fucking hate him. We need to do something.
*My dad, who has terminal cancer, actually received a letter asking him why he was still claiming for the cancer. He 'phoned the letter writer to express his deepest apologies for not being dead sooner.
