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September 15, 2008
Oh dear Camden
As if to prove the points of the last few days the now notorious Michael Clarke and the Lib Dem councillor Flick Rae (both of whom have recently been officials of the failed LLDA) have hit the headlines in defiance of a few famous authors in Hampstead. Here is the latest chapter from the Camden New Journal.
Incidentally afficionadoes of this site will notice the well-tempered wisdom of Alan Templeton in this piece. Alan is one of the chief voice of the Camden Public Library Users' Group and previous saviour of a number of libraries in the borough. He is also one of the main spokespersons of LLL, the cross London group of library users. They are as well informed as any campaign group in the country and they should be listened to.
Posted by Perkins at September 15, 2008 5:49 PM
Comments
Is that "oh, dear Camden" said in an affectionate tone of voice or "oh dear, Camden" said in the parental I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that tone of voice?
Posted by: hazel at September 17, 2008 5:42 PM
Hazel - thank you - and for the link to your blog, which is also welcome.
Try this- 'Oh Dear' as in 'total exasperation, politely expressed' or 'Dear' as in incredibly expensive.
The public library service in Camden has huge resources, it extracts more from the council taxpayers than almost any other library service in the country, probably in the world, and very little of that money ends up 'on the front line' most of it is spent on management and administration.
One wonders if Councillor Rae might be afraid to tackle the problems because she fears the reaction of the senior staff. When she was offered the opportunity to explore what was done in Hillingdon, as she was, she seemed more concerned about how changes have affected the staff and how they reacted, than she was in the benefit to the public and the increased use of the libraries. Perhaps someone should ask her why Camden hasn't followed that route.
Posted by: perkins at September 18, 2008 9:15 AM