The cuts being bulldozed throughout the country by the Cameron/Clegg public school thugs will, as we all know, devastate the social fabric of our society. One of the services that will be decimated will be the libraries. Up and down the country 400 libraries are earmarked for closure. Of course who will this hit the hardest, why those who don't have fat bank books. Resistance is growing against what these cuts are doing to our communities, and tomorrow, Saturday 5th February, there is a national day of protest across the country. In Edinburgh, Scottish writers and illustrators will lead an organised protest in the city to hand in a petition to the Scottish Parliament at 11am.
The petition reads;
"To: The First Minister and all Members of the Scottish parliament
We would like to protest at the widespread cuts to the library service taking place throughout Scotland.
In addition to the promotion of knowledge, literacy, and information retrieval skills, a professionally delivered library service embeds the joy of reading in our young people, building self awareness, articulate self expression, confidence, validating their life and culture, and leads to social and emotional literacy.
In a society experiencing a widening gap in household incomes, our libraries, in the great tradition on which they were first inaugurated and enshrined in the law of the land, provide access for all.
The cuts to book budgets, library opening hours, mobile services, branches, and the drastic and unnecessary deletion of professional posts strike at those most in need of a library service and those least able to protest against the cuts in that service - the less affluent, the elderly, the frail, people who are challenged mentally and physically and their carers, those who look after babies and toddlers and, crucially, our children - who are our future."
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