Libraries are very important

Here in the Uk the swingeing council cuts are starting with announcements last week of 2000 council jobs to go in Manchester and 1200 announced yesterday from Hampshire County Council. Indeed the BBC reckon that over 25,000 council jobs will go from England alone.

In Scotland the situation will be even more dire as the public sector accounts for approximately 1 in 4 jobs of total employment.

The ripple effect of large swathes of people losing well paid secure employment will, I believe, be catastrophic and one that is totally unpredictable.

The UK government certainly knows how to make everyone's lives a misery. In order to get the UK fiscal house in order, ordinary families are going to have to suffer. Whilst we all pay for the country's deficit, who pays for each indvidual's household deficit? Weren't we all encouraged to spend more than we had in those heady days of 100% mortgages and cheap loans? Who is going to help bearing the debt burden that many families struggle with? The government cannot point the finger at them and say they should have been more prudent when that is exactly what the government (even if it was the previous one) did itself.

And the soft target of closing libraries is even more despicable. This is where the young, old and unemployed can at least spend their days surrounded by warmth, books, computers and some sense of community. For the commuity is where help for those many people suffering from anxiety and depression, caused by the situation we find ourselves in, will be forthcoming.