Having mentioned the written word the other day it seems opportune to write about libraries. The vast majority of libraries are under the control of county or metropolitan councils.
They have the reputation of being places of silence where the only sound is the rustling of paper as the pages are turned. Arsenal fitba club’s former home was known as the Highbury Library because the fans were on the quiet side.
In reality the public libraries are little hotbeds of toxicity. Here are a few examples.
In more than a few of these libraries there are employees who cannot stand the sight of one or more fellow employees. This animosity may not be manifested in public but behind the scenes there is more than enough mayhem.
One of the libraries had a female employee who claimed she was “set off” by colours. The end result was that everyone working there had to wear patternless grey and nothing but grey. Whether this claim was medically substantiated is far from clear but everyone had to toe the line.
In another library a woman claimed she had to have her therapy cat accompany her to work. Once that had been agreed she then said she had to have said cat draped across her shoulders. Again this is probably from her saying so with no proof at all. It looks like you are not allowed to accuse anyone of being economical with the vérité.
These situations are probably ongoing as the current expression has it. When I heard about this I was tempted to think that they were pushing the norms and hoping to be told they couldn’t go to work but could remain at home and on full pay. It must have come as a great disappointment to them that their whims were accommodated and they had to continue going to work.
Almost all staff are unionised and the union will support them to the bitter end however daft their case may be. The relations between the unions and the councils can also be described as toxic. Red Robbo would have had a field day. In reality the whole council is toxic. Most of the staff have degrees coming out of every orifice but of common sense there is no sign. Their obsession is processes even when it is more than obvious that the process is ridiculous, it gets worse because often the processes are contradictory.
Did I mention trannies ? Probably not but the councils have more than their fair share of the mentally unbalanced who aggressively push their pronouns. Add these to the existing mix of oddities and you have a recipe for utter disfunction.
Basically many county councils are basket cases and with quite a few being lined up to become unitary authorities it will only get worse and more expensive. The District councils who will be merged into the county councils may be slightly less disturbed because they are smaller but probably not by much.
Those of you thinking this a load of old bow locks would be perfectly correct in your assessment. The complete absence of common sense ensures that these aberrations are seen as normal.
No wonder many councils want to sell off their libraries and reel in the proceeds as they sell off some more land for development, probably to some councillor’s mate for much less than it is worth.
The oddest part of all this is that the union reps are themselves council employees and so it is council employee being quite abusive to another council employee who happens to be a manager. The whole thing is a brown stuff show and we are paying for it. The only reason people stay there is for one of the finest pension schemes available in this country.
© well_chuffed 2025
