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I'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.

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Exactly! Just as slaves were forbidden to learn to read - knowledge is too powerful.

And I don't know about there, but here, libraries are a great place to connect with help from people. If you don't have a computer or the computer skills to google (or if google fails you) you can ask a librarian to help you research, and there are no stupid questions.

And libraries here have all kinds of free or dirt-cheap services - public computers with internet access, classes for people to learn basic computer skills, classes on anything you can imagine, discussion groups and clubs for whatever there's enough collective interest in... My library also has a great children's section with a big open space to play (they have lots of stuffed animals lying around) and read. My kids are in heaven there, pulling dozens of books off the shelves and asking to read.

And libraries here have all kinds of free or dirt-cheap services

This is precisely why the Conservatives hate them. Libraries are democratic and egalitarian places, evidence of the positive benefit of visionary socialists who weren't in it for the money. It's a lost opportunity for profit, so Cameron won't rest until they've all gone, along with the NHS and schools in the hands of local authorities.

That's horrific :O

I hope people are up in arms about this! I couldn't possibly imagine what my childhood would have been like without my local library.
It's a fucking disgrace denying people the right to knowledge like this.
And it wouldn't surprise me to find out Cameron had shares in bookstores as this is a way for sales of books to grow.

Thanks for this really passionate piece - I agree with you wholeheartedly. I see it's public - do you mind me spreading the link about? I think it deserves widespread readership.

It's in the news this morning that Cambridge is going to charge a blanket £9k a year in fees for all its courses from 2012 - so much for the government's claim that the maximum would only be permitted "in exceptional circumstances". Loads of other universities look set to follow.

Absolutely feel free to share! The more people talk about it, the better.

£9k is utterly disgusting. What bothers me is that people on a relatively low income will fall into the bracket that means their children have to pay those fees. Who can afford £9k in fees each year?

Nobody but the very, very poor (well, in theory) and the very, very rich will be able to afford Cambridge. They've finally got the elite they wanted.

Thanks. I fully intend to write about this myself, but I don't have the time to do it just now.

They've finally got the elite they wanted.

Absolutely. People from state schools were always rather grudgingly admitted and made to feel like second-class citizens. Now they're completely screwed and a good education is once again the preserve of those born wealthy.

thats awful about your Dad, they should be hauled over the coals for that. you should sendt a copy to the local paper.

Ive got to admit i am pretty livid about the library situation, I use both Manchester's business library and keep an eye on Bolton's library but to be honest i want to run out of Bolton library in jiffy. It smells, (of wee and old people) the staff are miserable and unhelpfull, the books are tatty and messy, mostly scruffed up paperbacks, with pages falling out as they dont buy hardbacks any more. Half of them are refusing to install e-book technology, which todays modern peeps demand. Their ref sections need a good dust and trying to find a ref book 1990 onwards is extremley difficult, without going on a waiting list of six weeks.

If they are going to survive then they need more money, and that means fundraising. They cant compete anymore against cheap books in the supermarkets, charity bookstores and even brand new fiction books are not as expensive in comparison to what they were in the 1980's when i used the libraries a lot.

Only a good reference section, business intelligence support, best uptodate journals and e-tech will get people using the libraries again. And it seems the only libraries that can afford to do this is city centre libraries, not even the satellite towns can manage.

Ive been trying to get Manchester library to install ebooks for months, i had to join liverpool! yet ive not been up to activate it yet.

grrr.

I dont want libraries to close down, but they have got to shake themselves up.

Even if main town libraries survive, albeit with cuts of staff, hours and extra services, you can bet the beloved mobile library and smaller rural libraries will be for the axe! Apart from my own heartfelt love of the places, it could hit my family hard: my sister is an assistant manager shared by two main libraries and her ex-husband is the mobile library driver.

The coalition government will tut and shake their heads: it won't be their fault. It's local government that decides where to save the money they've been deprived of.

Your Dad rocks. I wish he emailed me instead of you.

Yeah for posting this! Though about doing something, yes, yes, yes but what ? There are groups against the cuts (can find the websites for you if you're interested) but it didn't do much good about the uni fee, despite some demos turning real agressive. I don't think anything will work short of something as big as the poll tax riots.

Though I'm going to shut up now, because I didn't even go to the big student demos, even the one next door in Cambridge, I was too busy finishing a deadline for my stupid corporate day job. I'm a class traitor and should be hung from a lampost with my own guts.

And hat off to you Dad! *bows*

My local paper today lists 3 local librarys in Barnsley that are very likely to close. Is it coincidence that these 3 are in some of the worst areas, most deprived, most crime ridden? I think not. Several others, in nicer areas, that were at risk of closing are ok, for now.

Don't get me started on this government, I have redundancy hanging over me for the next 3 months. If I keep my job it's still going to be tough coping with the money we have to save.

OMG, they sent that kind of letter to your father? That's disgusting, just disgusting. He had every right to call them. I love his response.

They recently closed a beloved childhood library of mine. I'm not going to say it was like losing an arm, more like losing a toe. One of the big ones that helps you balance. Taking away libraries is a detriment to the universe.

It's an obvious class war, and it worries me that there isn't a more intense response to all this. The student protests were wonderful, but it feels like a) the ire was more directed at the Lib Dems than the Tories (not to say the Lib Dems smell of roses, but the idea of an LD betrayal of voters was useful in distracting people from the deeper problem that Tory policy s basically evil), and b) the protests need to continue.

What scares me re: the DLA and ESA changes is that ministers are largely not responding when disabled people contact them. The truth is, we've been expendable from the start and the Govt. has neither forseen the consequences of those cuts (which, frankly, will include deaths) nor feared any wider public backlash, because a) the Big Society plan was an election gambit indicative of an utter lack of understanding of modern society; and b) the vile propaganda they've used against us has been effective by appealing to society's worst instincts.

I decided to lurk you a little bit to see what I was getting myself in for and

1) You like the Manics. I love the Manics. ♥

2) My parents both come from a working class background, my Mum's parents came over from Jamaica and Barbados and my Dad's parents are proper east end. (My Nanny is romani too and her grandparents lived in a caravan and everything) and education is the most important thing for them. My Dad's parents continued to live in a Council Estate so him, his brother and sister could go to grammar school (which was very far away) and take music lessons, and whilst only my Aunt went to university (she became a music teacher) both my Dad and Uncle are really big on education.

When I was 5 my Dad read me The Hobbit and at 6 I read it by myself. So for my 8th birthday he bought me a proper lush Lord of the Rings with the fancy colourplate pages and everything and wrote in it 'a man once said I think therefore I am, if thats true then to gain knowledge is to expand your existance, so go on and expand your existance'
He was wrong, but I think he'd only heard the quote out of context but whatever. I read everything in sight. I read backs of tampon packets, the cereal nutrition information... anything. I used to go to the Library and stock up on Young Adult and Teen fiction when I was a kid and cried because they wouldnt let an 10 year old take out more than 6 books at a time.

When my little sister was being bullied, she used to go to libraries and read all the Guiness World Book of Records...which is odd but whatever.

When I was a kid in North London we got to go to the library with our school once a week and it was the best time of my life. We'd spend an hour there and we could chose any book we wanted and I'd always get stressed out just picking one book. Our teacher Mr Hunter would always tell us a greek myth or one of Aesop's fables on the bus ride back too. We loved Library Day!

and now they want to take that haven away? With the amount of kids who read falling dramatically all the time, with adult literacy being at an all time low? This is ridiculous!

3) I actually quoted manics the other day in reference to the University thing 'whats the point in an education when you have to pay for the privilege'. Its disgusting.

4) Whats even more disgusting is the letter they sent to your Dad. I'm sorry.
I have a friend who is disabled by a multitude of things, at the top of the list are Fibromyalgia and Lipodema and because both things are still not very well understood in the medical profession, she still has doctors who tell her everything is in her head and there is nothing wrong with her. She had to fight to get her disability benefits, and then she lost them as soon as she got married to her husband.

Sorry, we've just become friends and I am ranting but the Manics lured me in and I have a lot of feelings about this D:

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