Councillor Robert Rams - the enemy of The Barnet Library Service

One of the better things about Barnet is the fine Library service. Even the previous Barnet Council regime of Mike Freer, for all it's failings (and these were many) recognised this and spent a pretty penny renovating a few of them (most notably Burnt Oak). What happens when a library is done up? More people go there and the community thrives.

Sadly for us poor residents, the new leader (oh so nearly the old leader last week), hates communities. She has appointed the most useless councillor she could find to flog them off and shut them down. This is currently being dressed up as a library review, saying nothing is being ruled out. Whilst the review is being performed another review is being done of the properties. In this, the Librarys have clearly been earmarked as up for sale to raise cash. The man in charge of all of this, Uber Twat Councillor Robert Ramsbottom  has suggested that we might prefer to order the books online and collect them from Tescos. He has also suggested that the Libraries may be more popular if they were branches of Starbucks.

Now as Mr Ramsbottom clearly has no idea of who uses libraries or why they use them, let me explain why he is a complete twat wrong.

A) Starbucks is a coffee shop where people meet to drink coffee, socialise and chat. A library is a place where people go to borrow books, read books and study away from noisy environments.

B) Librarians are skilled and qualified staff who have a knowledge of books and indexing. With all due respect to Starbucks staff, they aren't.

C) People like to browse books before borrowing them. Older members of the public are not IT literate.

D) A library freehold is an assett for ever. It has already been paid for. A library lease is a cost until it is (as will inevitably happen when this hits the balance sheet) closed.

E) Once a library is sold off and closed, that asset is gone forever. The loss of a quiet space for study will be most detrimental to bright children from noisy households, with no private study area.

One wonders where Mr Ramsbottom got the idea that we should get our books from Tesco's? One wag has suggested his favourate books are found on the top shelf there and he can handily buy a pack of tissues at the same time as it's a shop. Libraries offer no such opportunities, which is clearly why Little Bob finds them dull. Of course the Barnet Eye would never be so scurrillous as to say such a thing.

I am organising a collection of books for Robert Rams. He clearly needs educating and I'm starting a Save Barnet Library Service. A petition will be set up shortly. I will be manning a stall in Mill Hill Broadway on Saturday 25th September from 10am till Noon. If you can help, please contact me via the email address in my profile on this blog - Fight it or Lose it. Please register your vote in the poll in the to right hand of this blog

****** The Barnet Eye wishes to clarify that in our reference to books on the top shelf, we were clearly referring to motoring magazines. Our reference to tissues was clearly referring to the nasty cold the veneral Councillor was suffering which made his voice so squeaky ******