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July 11, 2008
Synchronised Suicide
From James:
I (rather happily) admit to being a grumpy old man about this one (The Public libraries role in the Olympic Games), but how many times do we have to hear the same old tired phraseology and lumpen cliche trotted out by these boring old farts? It's neither wonderful, exciting nor refreshed and what does an ever increasing impact for the public actually mean? How about reasonable opening hours, enough staff, adequate funding and a good stock of books? This is not something which has to "impact for" the public (should actually be "impact on")! It's just hard common sense, but of course this is the MLA and they can't have that. Is the MLA in fact trying to bomb the public into submission? Personally, I'd like to take a leaf out of Dr Strangelove and drop Burnham and Clare through a B-52's bomb-bay doors. Falling to their deaths astride a nuclear missile might at least inspire them to produce some original vocabulary or even create a new Olympic event - synchronised suicide instead of synchronised swimming, perhaps? More seriously, could not Andrew Motion use his undoubted capability with words, get with the program (US spelling) like an angry young man and say something pithy and politically-incorrect about the problems with the public library service?
This blog now claims the career destruction of Chris Batt, David Lammie and Mark Wood within the 12 months since Philip Pettifors memorial service. Philip would be --indeed is, I hope,-- so proud of us. Not a day goes by when I do not think of his fine tenor voice in the choir of angels)
Posted by Perkins at July 11, 2008 10:38 AM