UK Politics #16

[monga]

Interesting that you should say that. I was just reading a couple of articles about library provision in schools. One said that analysis of data released by the government in 2022 showed that Northern Ireland schools were the least likely to have a school library and were the least likely to have a designated budget. A separate report called the "Great School Library" published in 2023 led a member of CILIP Ireland to comment “Of the countries involved, it is notable that school library provision in Northern Ireland is underfunded and undervalued in comparison to that in England and Wales, despite having some of the most experienced school library staff in the United Kingdom. Only 57% of schools in Northern Ireland have a designated school library on site, in stark contrast to the 90% of schools providing this resource in England and 67% in Wales. This inequality in access to school library provision is compounded by a disparity in funding, with only 27% of Northern Irish schools having a designated library budget. Whilst the majority of school libraries in England are able to add to their stock on a termly basis, six in ten school librarians in Northern Ireland are only able to update their materials on an annual basis and, in some cases, even less frequently".

NI have limited budgets for everything lol,including the upkeep of school buildings let alone libraries. It’s interesting that NI pupils rank amongst the top in the world for literacy, according to AI it’s a dedicated library space they lack but all have class libraries ,my children’s schools have always had a library usually books are purchased through book fairs, monetary donations from businesses or school fundraisers.

 

[Moth]

Agree. It’s the same with the NHS. That needs a total overhaul. It needs dismantling and replacing with a health care service for the modern times.

And what would "a health care service for the modern times" look like? What is it about "the modern times" that makes the concept of a health service free at the point of use such anachronism?

No party will do that because the people will shout ‘Save our NHS, blah blah’. Britain thinks it’s NHS is unique - it’s only unique in the sense that it doesn’t work effectively or efficiently anymore.

People shout "Save our NHS, blah blah' because they are worried that that certain politicians want it to be privatised and we end up with a two tier (to coin a phrase) health system such as that in the US. Some people even think that the NHS has been deliberately under funded and run down by previous governments to soften up the public to the idea that "it needs dismantling and replacing". If that's true it appears to some extent to have worked. I'm sure you're not really suggesting that the NHS is the only health service that "doesn’t work effectively or efficiently anymore".

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/blogs/comparing-nhs-to-health-care-systems-other-countries

The boats need stopping because the country can’t cope… and so in a loop we go!

Just as a bit of perspective, the people that arrived on "the boats" in the last 12 months equate to 0.06% (6 hundredths of one percent) of the population of the country which apparently "can't cope".

 

[kev1974]

There is no statutory requirement for schools to have a library. Provision of libraries in both primary and secondary schools has been falling for a number of years due to lack of funding. A 2023 report showed that overall 1 in 7 primary schools do not have libraries but this rises to 1 in 4 schools in disadvantaged areas. Of the primary schools that did have libraries, 62% said the they had no designated budget to buy books. Since 2021 the Libraries for Primaries Campaign has transformed over 1000 primary school libraries and trained over 2,000 staff to support them and for the last two years has been campaigning for libraries to be provided in all primary schools.

Of course none of this is necessary if you can simply dismiss the idea on the basis that kids don't have the concentration to read books these days.

The libraries will probably be like the "free" breakfast clubs, where they've just dumped a supplier of cornflakes and milk on the schools and expected the existing teachers to do something with them. The "library" is probably a few crates of books per school (or £1000 of amazon vouchers) and again they expect an existing teacher to step up, find a room, find shelves, implement a loaning system etc. But it allows Rachel and Bridget to claim they put a library in every primary school.

Funnily enough, as usual they don't seem to be forthcoming with the list of the 1700 schools they are saying don't currently have a library. Easy to make these numbers up when you never document anything properly.

 

[Theodore]

I wish Tony Blair would just piss off.

 

[Miss Begotten]

I wish Tony Blair would just piss off.

….to prison.

 

[TheMiceInTheShed]

I wish Tony Blair would just piss off.

IMO he should be in jail for war crimes after the "weapons of mass destruction" falsifications (allegedly), but pissing off will do.

 

[OatMatchaLatte]

I wish Tony Blair would just piss off.

He just won't flush, will he? My dissertation was based on the WMD affair (well, the impact of the Hutton enquiry on BBC journlism, but I had to do a lot of research into WMD/Dr Kelly etc). The whole thing was a disgrace and I don't know how Blair, Campbell etc can live with themselves, let alone continue to present themselves as some kind of saviours/paragons of virtue.

 

[TheMiceInTheShed]

….to prison.

You posted as I typed and let the dog out for a wee mid-post.

 

[Moth]

NI have limited budgets for everything lol,including the upkeep of school buildings let alone libraries. It’s interesting that NI pupils rank amongst the top in the world for literacy, according to AI it’s a dedicated library space they lack but all have class libraries ,my children’s schools have always had a library usually books are purchased through book fairs, monetary donations from businesses or school fundraisers.

It's good that your children's schools have always had a library. However from the figures that I quoted upthread it seems that not every school in N.I and indeed in the UK have been so lucky. I think a lot of schools only have libraries because the they and the parents have raised the money to pay for them. That might explain the higher number of schools without libraries in disadvantaged areas. I think that provision of basic materials shouldn't be down to fundraising by schools and parents so I welcome the government's intervention on this issue.

 

[Moth]

The libraries will probably be like the "free" breakfast clubs, where they've just dumped a supplier of cornflakes and milk on the schools and expected the existing teachers to do something with them. The "library" is probably a few crates of books per school (or £1000 of amazon vouchers) and again they expect an existing teacher to step up, find a room, find shelves, implement a loaning system etc. But it allows Rachel and Bridget to claim they put a library in every primary school.

Funnily enough, as usual they don't seem to be forthcoming with the list of the 1700 schools they are saying don't currently have a library. Easy to make these numbers up when you never document anything properly.

That you can probably post this comment in response to my post which you probably didn't read and probably without doing any actual research of your own probably means that you missed that the research which showed that 1 in 7 primary schools do not have libraries wasn't done by this government or even the previous one, you know the one that was actually in power when the research was published in 2023. In response to that research, Nick Gibb, Education Minister for the Conservative government told parliament that "It is for individual schools to decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for their pupils" and that "the Department does not collect information on the number of school libraries". One probably might think that is a typical Tory government passing the buck. It also probably means that you have no idea what work has already been done to create libraries in primary schools and to train staff and teachers to support them. You probably don't even know about the 'Libraries for Primaries' campaign to ensure that every primary school in the UK has a library or dedicated library space so you were probably surprised by Rachel Reeves announcement that the government will support that aim. I like to think that it was probably simple ignorance that led you to post that comment but I suspect it probably wasn't. I don't know enough to comment on your comment on breakfast clubs but I suspect that's probably balls too.

 

[monga]

It's good that your children's schools have always had a library. However from the figures that I quoted upthread it seems that not every school in N.I and indeed in the UK have been so lucky. I think a lot of schools only have libraries because the they and the parents have raised the money to pay for them. That might explain the higher number of schools without libraries in disadvantaged areas. I think that provision of basic materials shouldn't be down to fundraising by schools and parents so I welcome the government's intervention on this issue.

I guess we’ll just have to carry on doing what we’re doing it’s only English schools set to benefit from the government’s pennies.

 

[Salted Caramel]

There is no statutory requirement for schools to have a library. Provision of libraries in both primary and secondary schools has been falling for a number of years due to lack of funding. A 2023 report showed that overall 1 in 7 primary schools do not have libraries but this rises to 1 in 4 schools in disadvantaged areas. Of the primary schools that did have libraries, 62% said the they had no designated budget to buy books. Since 2021 the Libraries for Primaries Campaign has transformed over 1000 primary school libraries and trained over 2,000 staff to support them and for the last two years has been campaigning for libraries to be provided in all primary schools.

Of course none of this is necessary if you can simply dismiss the idea on the basis that kids don't have the concentration to read books these days.

Thanks for taking the time to respond Moth, all very interesting. Of course, the idea that children don't have the concentration to read these days, if true, is probably not helped by them not having access to books and encouragement to read. Reading for pleasure might actually improve their concentration skills. What a terrible state of affairs.

 

[Blueblue123]

New thread https://tattle.life/threads/uk-politics-17.50986/