« No one is in charge | Main | SYRUP sponge »
September 22, 2009
Failure of Government
The story this morning is that the DCMS won't publish the Sue Charteris report on the Wirral 'because the ministers can't face that can of worms during the political conference season'
How pathetic. They don't care in the least that this means that Wirral council has been overspending its budget since April, and that taxpayers funds will have to be found to pay for the expenditure.
Events described endlessly on this blog over several years have shown that the DCMS is incapable of responsible management of the public library service. It is not satisfactory that such a department could be allowed to drift on from one Government to the next, whenever the election comes. There has to be a radical change in the approach of the administration: if the duties are to remain with the Department of Culture, someone needs to reorganise the role and the process. The Culture Select Committee needs to step up and do its job.
At the same time news is going around that Craig Westwood, long time incumbent of the libraries seat in the department, has left. His track record has been recorded here.
Posted by Perkins at September 22, 2009 8:24 AM
Comments
In South Swindon we have in our Labour MP, Anne Snelgrove, someone who is interested, approachable and hard working. I have recently written to thank her for all her efforts to support our threatened libraries. However, beyond her (in the echelons of DCMS et al), in spite of her endeavours, it appears that no-one seems to give a hoot. It does not make sense. Why does DCMS not listen to an elected representative? What is DCMS for exactly? Perkins, please explain.
Posted by: Shirley Burnham at September 26, 2009 1:01 PM