New rules for Reform-run libraries after Pride row

I was using public libraries in the early 60s. They were full of books, not donated ones, either, but bought in new and I could order a book from another library (and still can, of course). Free libraries spring from the Victorian movement to improve education among the working people and to provide wholesome entertainment to working people - the main philanthropist involved in the UK is Andrew Carnegie, who funded libraries early in the twentieth century. Being a librarian in a public library has been a career for longer that the 1964 Act, it was well established when I was applying for university places in the mid-sixties.

But what do you teach in Black History Month? Until the 60s there were relatively small numbers of black people in the UK and many were transitory i.e. like Gandhi, they came to study. There is not a lot one can say about John Blanc, Henry VIII's trumpeter (I wonder where he learned to play the trumpet, now that is worth finding out!) or Belle, who was a relation of Lord Mansfield. The anti-slavery movement was driven by people like Wilberforce, though the work of Equiano is noteworthy and interesting. Any digging will produce the presumably problematic fact (if one is looking for positive stories) that countries in Africa were slaving long before the Atlantic Trade and continue to slave to this day, and that the eastern trade out of Zanzibar by Arabs makes the Atlantic Trade look humane. Certainly that is worth teaching to older students. We could look at the first Asian MPs to sit in the UK Parliament (a colonial subject could stand for the UK parliament if resident in Britain) and at the work of suffragists in India.

And while Andrew Carnegie very generously funded the building of many libraries the local authority were expected to provide the ongoing funding.

This is not accurate and a quick Google would tell you that Public Libraries Act 1850 - Wikipedia https://share.google/bO5alD2AqHI45B7Mq
The 1964 Act was not the first piece of legislation around free public libraries and the driver as I have said previously was Victorian concern over where and how working men were spending their free time.

A lot of libraries exist because Andrew Carnegie paid for them. They should be politically neutral. I daresay Reform would be happy for displays on local suffrage history or the Peasants' Revolt. I have no objection and indeed, am happy to see to displays for Diwali and Hanukkah (my DC celebrate Diwali) but I want to see one for Easter and Christmas as well (not instead) and somehow I never do (though we do have Christmas lights but they are paid for by the shops, I think).

And actually public libraries were set up to provide working men with an alternative to the pub.

Sorry meant to quote this.

Libraries are a universal public service open to all without fear or favour. In my view (as a librarian) they most certainly are and should be politically neutral.

We're not talking about Sainsbury's, we're talking about libraries, some of which do mark South Asian Heritage Month. Your suggestion was they didn't.

Reform in this case do plan to mark Armed Forces Day.

It doesn't say anything about banning the books.
Or getting rid of any sections of the library.

I do not see posters up in Sainsbury's for Asian History month ....

Remembrance is 11th November.
I see no need for an additional day.

Do you remember when there was the phase of two, three, four minutes silence for every sad event

glad that faded away too

Armed Forces Day (formerly Veteran's Day) is an American import. Object to that too?

And without getting all "When's International Men's Day", South Asian Heritage Month is July - but then you presumably already knew that.

https://southasianheritage.org.uk/

'An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him
The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him'

And at the moment political beliefs are so divisive that they cannot be represented in spaces and facilities intended to be equally welcoming to all.

It's a shame. But it's one of the many things transactivism has broken on its noisy, aggressive and destructive way. These things existed within a society that knew where the lines and boundaries were, and that only works until you have people who want to break those lines for their own benefit and lack the capacity to value anyone else. #whywecan'thavenicethings.

Thanks for that.

It's what's happened in the US and now the UK is where identity politics has taken over, where we seem to sneer at unifying national events and instead think that events that represent one particular segment of society is preferred.

Black history month is not inclusive and leads to the same old questions "what about white history month", the same with Pride and LGBT+² History Month "what about straight month" etc.

I think the last national event that seemed truly inclusive was the Olympics. Most Royal events are sneered at now.

And earlier, too, if you mean open to all rather than publicly funded. Chetham's in Manchester was the first in 1653, established by a "billionaire" mill owner with instructions that it was to open to anyone.

You are so ignorant. Can you not be bothered to research the establishment of libraries by benefactors?

The UK has twice as many South Asians - due to the Empire and Commonwealth - as it does Blacks (African and West Indian)

Black History Month is an American import that should be dropped from the UK calendar.
American kids do not learn about living under the Blitz, I fail to see why UK kids need to learn about Rosa Parks when the UK race situation was utterly different.

Libraries should be places to work and read and where children and their carers can get books to look at.

All of the themed events are virtue signalling and money wasting.

Gosh, I must have hallucinated our well-stocked, well run (by the council) smallish town public library in the 1950s. It had a particularly good children’s section. And of course the much larger and more imposing library in the nearest city.

This ahistorical nonsense that ignores the development of public libraries from the 19th century onwards.

Yeah I didn't know they were in them. But they should still be able to celebrate all the cultures of the local community. Black History and Pride can still be celebrated. Without being political. Presuming some of the community are either/or brown or gay or just interested in social history.

One of the things that bores me is how political partisan things are. If Reform said that they support Gaza or stopping climate change then the Green Party would start moaning.

There is a Save Our Libraries group in Essex to stop libraries being closed. They have spent their resources this year on petitions and protests over the banning of Pride in libraries, which has got nothing to do with libraries staying open. I think the local Lib Dems are heavily involved, and a lot of nonsense over saying Nazis burning books in the 1930's because Pride is not promoted.

If the other parties don't like losing votes then they should look at what they did to make them lose voters.

Then we agree!

My local libraries became a BLM-fest, which is not about being black but is a specific anti-capitalist, anti-carceral movement.

Pride in recent years hasn’t been about just being gay, but specifically about trans and trans rights.

Libraries are public resources and shouldn’t be campaigning vehicles.

Maybe I’m just very unlucky with my libraries but judging from others on this thread I’m not the only one.

They are examples of things that have been promoted by libraries as part of black awareness and pride months.
And you are correct in stating that they don't belong in libraries