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April 4, 2009
Wirral
Very good news that at long last the Minister of State has used his power to intervene and review the decision.
The last time these powers were used were in Derbyshire. The report was published in December 1991. (ISBN 0903 463350)
It is interesting to note that a first report was written, then, by those officials of the DCMS who looked after libraries (there was no MLA), but their work was overruled and disregarded. Only then was an independent panel of inquiry created with Alan Newman QC asked to head the inquiry. He was joined by a local government director of finance and a retired chief librarian and they then reported extensively on the subject, with detailed and important recommendations (which were then, it appears, in typical retribution, ignored by the officials of the DCMS!, but probably not by Derbyshire, whose service is now among the best)
They opened the report with these lines from Milton
'as good almost kill a man as kill a good book--- he who destroys books destroys life itself'
and ended it with this from a poem written by a local councillor
'My lament is from a broken heart
Some paperbacks would be a start'
Posted by Perkins at April 4, 2009 9:41 AM