The government is taking books from everyone, not just prisoners

Author, campaigner and Left Unity member Alan Gibbons argues that if our library services are to have any hope it will take a sharp break from the failed policies of austerity.

The ironically-entitled Justice Secretary, Mekon-lookalike Chris Grayling recently caused a furore by introducing a ban on families sending books to prisoners.

Authors as celebrated and respected as Carol Ann Duffy, Mark Haddon, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes led the criticism of Grayling. Grayling could even face legal action.

Self-evidently, the policy makes no sense whatsoever. Defenders of prison as an institution invariably point to the issue of redemption to support them in the present form. The main agent of such redemption is education and a major part of education is the ability to read well and read widely. Many prisoners are there at least in part because the education system has failed them.

Supporters of Mr Grayling would point out, in his defence, that libraries are statutory and argue that there is no need to send books. Librarians are not statutory however and there is no protection of the book stock.

The receipt of books from outside is a vital lifeline for any inmate who wants to develop the reading habit. Grayling’s move was yet another example of this government’s reactionary populism, another way to court the UKIP-leaning Tory right. It is wrong-headed, damaging and immoral.

There is also a great deal of irony here. A few years ago I organised a petition signed by some 8,000 people calling for school libraries to be made statutory. One of my arguments was that prison libraries were statutory and that if schools had the right to a library maybe fewer youngsters would slip into crime because of their low literacy skills and end up there. Grayling’s deeply unpopular decision should be seen in the context of the actions of the most philistine government in generations.

It was the Conservative Party that passed into legislation the 1964 Museums and Public Libraries Act, finally securing for the public a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service enshrined in law. It may be a Conservative-led government that wounds it fatally.

The Tories have form. The ‘golden age’ of public libraries came under attack in the Thatcher cuts of the early Eighties. Ever since, libraries have always been top of the list in each new wave of cuts. As a result, branches have closed, book stocks have been slashed, librarians’ jobs have gone and opening hours have been reduced. A downward spiral was set in motion in which libraries with fewer books and staff, opening at odd hours, have become less attractive to the public. This long-term decline, a feature not of public disaffection but of governmental neglect, has accelerated dramatically since the coalition government took office.

There has been resistance. There is a campaign Speak up for Libraries involving professional associations, campaign groups and the union Unison. It organised a 350 strong lobby of Parliament. I organised, through the Campaign for the Book, part of SUFL, 120 Read Ins across the country, leading to the establishment of National Libraries Day. The librarians’ body CILIP has passed a vote of no confidence in junior Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, who savaged the Labour government over library closures in the Wirral and promptly oversaw far worse ones in office. I won’t even comment on his boss, Maria Miller!

In spite of our efforts, the cuts continue, in part due to the relatively low level of resistance to the public spending squeeze. Hundreds of libraries have closed or been handed over to volunteer groups and an uncertain future. There is absolutely no strategic vision for the service. School Library Services and school libraries are also underfunded and often under threat. The North Yorkshire service was given notice of closure only recently. All this is at a time when there are concerns about the impact of low literacy levels among some sections of the population.

While there are pressures on libraries all over the world, few countries are engaged in an act of cultural vandalism as savage as is underway here. South Korea is building 180 new libraries. New Zealand and Ireland have strategic plans for their services. The number of Japanese libraries is up 3%. The number of librarians has grown by 11.3%.

There is undoubtedly a better way to proceed, but an arrogant and contemptuous government ignores it. Sadly, there has been precious little in the way of alternative policy from the Labour Party. Many Labour councils (Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield) have carried out cuts at least as savage as Tory ones. If our library services are to have any hope it will take a sharp break from the failed policies of ‘Austerity.’

At Left Unity’s policy conference in Manchester on March 29, the party agreed to reverse all the government’s cuts including those in the education sector.