Worshipping the bottom line

If it’s not the end of the line for smaller libraries, it’s banks closing more branches.

If it’s not schools having millions of pound slashed from their budgets, it’s JobCentres earmarked for closure.

Almost a decade on from financial crisis we are still being hit hard, hit hard seemingly just about every day of the week.

I, in some ways, understand any operation like a bank which is seeing more and more of its business done on line deciding to cut back on premises.

Indeed the branch I had an account with for more than three decades no longer exists, my own use of internet banking being part of the problem.

But I cannot understand how, with a growing student population and new demands thrust upon schools with the insatiable need for new homes in prime locations, effective funding cuts to the education system can make any sense.

Libraries are one of the core activities of our county council and we have been receiving a gold standard of library provision for as long as I can remember.

Now that is no longer the case as councillors who I cannot believe for a moment entered politics to close things down are being forced to do just that.

And it is not just schools and libraries, it is social care and other vital provision which should be safeguarded and is now being discarded in the incessant worship of the bottom line.

When are the cuts which we read about every week going to stop, I will ask again.

I know our borough and county councils face another two or three years of purgatory and it is difficult to see what they can cut next.

What other gold standard services will be downgraded?

Which other services will disappear altogether?

If the cuts go on for much longer and bite much deeper will worshipping the bottom line produce the end result of no local authorities at all?