Tim Adams has decided that Birmingham residents don’t care about the cuts, because not many of us turned up to a recent demonstration (“Birmingham council has just cut services to the bone, but its citizens can’t read all about it in print”). As someone who works in Birmingham libraries, I’d like to assure him that citizens are desperately worried about the city’s future. Libraries are hugely valued as resources for the community, and on every working day people ask whether the building will stay open. What makes it all the harder is not knowing exactly where the axe will fall. People are busy signing petitions and lobbying their councillors.
It is women, people with disabilities, the elderly and children who will suffer most. Too often the trades union movement has failed these groups. A Westminster-based political culture has failed us too. We want to talk about the future of our city. What concerns us most of all is a sense that few people in power wish to listen.
Sibyl Ruth
Birmingham
