please empty your brain below
Meanwhile other service sector industries are outsourcing to automated systems and the Indian subcontinent. Manufacturing is being done in China and our creaking infrastructure (roads) etc will doubtless be maintained by Eastern European builders once they've finished the European networks. Nice.

B | 27.05.10 - 10:02 a.m. | #

You seem to have missed the critical point. You are a librarian - you get paid. You are made redundant - you get some unemployment benefit. You are unemployed and agree to volunteer your services as a librarian for the good of the community rather than sitting at home (and keeping your work skills up-to-date) - your unemployment benefit gets taken away because as you are a volunteer at the community library you are clearly not available for work.

Pedantic of Purley | 27.05.10 - 10:24 a.m. | #

If all the libraries, community centres and museums have closed, where are all the unemployed people going to hang out?

Audrey | 27.05.10 - 11:06 a.m. | #

I hate life.

Mat | Homepage | 27.05.10 - 11:32 a.m. | #

Nail hit squarely on head here.

And the worst thing is that libraries now seem to be the last safety net for the failed community centers, rehab centers and the like.

John Nez | Homepage | 27.05.10 - 4:10 p.m. | #

Amusing, but so, so depressing.

However Bill and Ben the Chancellor Men will mess it up so badly, soon enough there will have to be another general election.

I give this fiasco 18 months.

Amused | 27.05.10 - 6:58 p.m. | #

Incredibly depressing; I think your choice of drop down menus is very apt.

| 28.05.10 - 8:14 a.m. | #

Whilst I understand the general point you are making, given that many of these services are locally provided/funded, and many (eg sports centres) are now run by companies to whom they have been outsourced (ie so have to operate at a service user-funded profit already), I'm not convinced it will be as dire as you 'predict'.

Besides, do you have any better ideas for how to save the money needed to service the debt 'kindly' left by Labout? The country didn't get itself into the mess it's on without some 'help' from Bliar, Goldfish and their cronies...

Blue Witch | Homepage | 28.05.10 - 11:25 a.m. | #

I thought we, as a nation, were doing all right until the Thatcher years. Mind you, that could just be coincident with my age, I mean, as a child, you don't really care about 3 or 4 day weeks and rolling blackouts and bread shortages and balance of payments and mortgage interest rates etc. I guess I really only took notice of politics as I reached 21, started working and tried buying a house while base lending rates were nudging 15% and the average house prices had shot up by 50% in the 3 years I was at uni but were now crashing downwards again making it a poor investment.

Audrey | 28.05.10 - 2:48 p.m. | #

Audrey - my father was a shop steward in the EEPTU (the electricians union) during the 70s, so I saw all the rolling power cuts at first hand as they worked to rule (they weren't allowed to strike, by law). It's why my politics and those of DG seem to be somewhat different (at least judging by his posts - I wouldn't wish to presume too much). I agree with BW - it won't be as bad as all that, just as my fears of Blair weren't all justified (just most of them).
On a technical point, there are dozens of nursery schools (most of which are private enterprises, not state run) closing at the moment due to a change of funding introduced by Brown/Darling/Balls. Under the old funding scheme, nurseries/parents were given funding for 12.5 hours per week at a pitiful level, but the nurseries were allowed to charge a "top up" so that they could offer a good level of service - or, more normally, simply to earn enough to survive. Then they (the Labour Government) decided to "help" parents by increasing the weekly funding to 15 hours. "Hurrah", you might think. But they also stopped nurseries charging any form of supplement or top up fee. As a result, literally dozens of nurseries around here are closing as they can no longer gain enough income to pay qualified staff - our own son's nursery is closing and our local authority is panicking about a lack of provision come September. We managed to find a nearby nursery that is continuing to trade - we discovered it is able to do so by paying 18 year olds and students to look after the kids rather than fully trained and qualified nursery teachers. The nursery teachers are losing their jobs and can't find new posts - and they can't move upward into primary or secondary education because the Labour dimwits had an "education for all" policy that meant that there are now far more newly qualified teachers with PGCEs than there are posts to fill, in spite of the fact that the number of teaching places can be planned years in advance using birth and immigration statistics.
Conclusion: they really could not organise a piss up in a brewery. I'm glad they are gone and I hope they don't come back for a very long time.

Rant over! Apologies to DG for ranting in his comment space. Feel free to return the favour at my place if ever you feel so inclined!

graybo | Homepage | 30.05.10 - 9:09 p.m. | #











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