Local MP besieged by library protesters in Haughton Green. Hurst library to be sold to 'McDonald's'!

Last Friday, angry residents in Haughton Green, Denton, confronted Andrew Gwynne MP, demanding to know why their local community library was being closed by Tameside Council. He was also handed a petition containing the names and signatures of 1,457 people who are asking the council to reverse their decision, and to keep their library open.

Gwynne, who was clearly flustered by questions from placard waving protesters, said that libraries and other services were closing in Tameside because the government had slashed the council's budget by £100m. When asked why the parliamentary Labour Party was not speaking out about the cuts and doing more, he said they were speaking out, but were being outvoted by the government who had a majority of sixty. When asked why the local Labour council had been silent about the cuts which they were imposing on the people of Tameside, he told the questioner that they ought to take the matter up with their local councillors. Gwynne told library campaigners that the "worst cuts are still to come" and said he'd only been aware that Haughton Green and Denton West End libraries were being closed, when a local newspaper had contacted him for a comment. He said he would be contacting the council for a full explanation and for the reasons, why they were closing both libraries, which he was opposed to.

Although the council are currently carrying out a questionnaire based consultation exercise, they have already decided to close five libraries - Haughton Green, Newton, Mottram, West End, and Hurst. Dukinfield library could also close. Yet, in spite of these closures, the questionnaire says that Tameside Council is looking to "redesign its library service" and describes these savage library cuts, as "A NEW OFFER FOR TAMESIDE LIBRARIES" the "development of the new vision" offering a "high quality service for all Tameside residents." This bull-shit, is the language of the council's "Big Conversation" with the public. In Tameside, public services don't get cut or closed, they get "redesigned". A source has told Northern Voices that the council is to sell Hurst library, to McDonald's. Moreover, most of what the council is offering is already available in libraries and what people don't often realise, is that in filling in the questionnaire, and expressing a preference for one of the three options put forward by the council, they're effectively voting to close libraries and to cut council jobs.

Unlike Tameside councillors, who are provided with a free laptop or desktop computer and a £250 a year broadband allowance, many people in areas like Haughton Green and Hurst, which have beeen designated as areas of 'social deprivation', may not have internet access or even a computer, and they rely on their local library for access to computers and the internet. Food banks, have already been set up in Haughton Green and Hattersley, to distribute food to people in need.

According to research by the trade union UNISON, since April last year, 100 libraries across Britain have already closed and another 600 are also under threat. In Tameside, the council have now axed more jobs than almost any other authority in the north-west - only Rossendale, in Lancashire, have lost more staff - and they are busily outsourcing jobs and services, to private contractors like Carillion. Since May last year, the council have cut 1,384 full-time jobs and they recently announced that they want to cut a further 600 jobs.

Like many council's, Tameside say they have been forced to make these cuts because the government have cut their funding. Yet, it is the lollipop ladies and the librarians who are losing their jobs in Tameside and not the councillors or the 'fat cats' in these council's. While libraries close in Tameside, Tameside councillor's are given iPads and the choice of a iPhone or a Blackberry ostensibly, to cut down on paperwork and to promote the council's "green credentials." It is also interesting to note who is paying off this deficit, brought about by the greed and incompetence of Britain's bankers and the government's 'light-touch' regulation - it's certainly not the rich!

In May, Michael Meacher, the local MP for Oldham West and Royton, wrote to the Guardian newspaper stating that 77% of the budget deficit is being recouped by public expenditure cuts and benefit cuts, and only 23% is being repaid by tax increases. More than half of the tax increase, is accounted for by the VAT rise. While people lose their jobs and see their benefits and public services cut and their wages frozen or cut, the richest 1,000 persons in Britain, just 0.003% of the adult population, have seen their wealth increase over the past 3 years by £155bn.

Thick as thieves these MPs

OLDHAM MP MICHAEL MEACHER STICKS UP FOR WOOLAS:

(Northern Voices understands Michael Meacher - here seen cavorting with bikini-clad young women and a shark (below), Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, shares an office with Phil Woolas, the disqualified Oldham East Labour MP found guilty last Friday of lying about his Lib Dem opponent, Elwyn Watkins, at the General Election in May. Hence, it may well be that the current dodgy predicament of Mr Woolas may have a knock-on effect on the office running costs for Mr Meacher and that his concern for the plight of the staff may not be totally disinterested. Our readers must judge for themselves on the wisdom of Mr Meacher's remarks [extracted from Meacher's blog] below on behalf of his colleague Mr Woolas.)

'Of course MPs should tell the truth. It is not for me to determine whether or not my colleague Phil Woolas did so now that the court has reached its decision. I do however believe that he has been treated harshly, and that some of his traducers should take a wider look at this whole question of truth-telling because it could open up other embarrassing revelations. It has always been a good principle: let him who is innocent cast the first stone. I don’t of course have details of any other specific case, but it would certainly be surprising if among the other 649 MPs there was not a single instance where a Member had not strayed beyond the limits of truth and honesty in portraying a political opponent in an election.

'This is unlikely to be an isolated case – indeed the only reason why this case came to light in the first place is that Elwyn Watkins, the LibDem candidate, had the resources to bring it. He works for an Arab sheikh in the Middle East, so money was no object. Indeed, in the course of the one-week election court proceedings it appears that Watkins himself admitted that he had spent some £200,000 on the election, which is 7 times above the maximum permitted limit.

'Nor have Phil Woolas’ employees been treated fairly when they themselves cannot in any way be held responsible. They have been told by IPSA that their employment contracts terminated at 11am on Friday when the court gave its judgement. That would seem illegal by excluding the statutory period of notice, and it also means they will no longer be available for completing the constituency caseload even up till the judicial review in a fortnight, let alone till the by-election. Worse still, IPSA are now demanding that Phil Woolas pay back all his office expenses and staff expenses since the election in May, which could amount to some £70,000. This is gratuitously punitive and unfair when the money was used in good faith and for the benefit of the constituency, not the MP himself.

'But there are deeper questions about truth-telling raised by this episode. What about those MPs, including some on the Front-Bench of all three parties, who flipped the designation of their homes saying that first one house and then another was their second home when they knew that one or other statement wasn’t true? The cost the taxpayer in some cases tens of thousands of pounds, yet have never been brought to book. What about Nick Clegg (and he’s far from the only one) who solemnly declared he would abolish tuition fees and then voted to treble them? Or is it all right to lie to the electorate to win votes so long as you don’t lie about your political opponent to win votes? How about a right of recall for those MPs who deceive the electorate by their dishonesty?'