Does Welsh Labour read books? (Libraries As Preventative Medicine)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Recently here in Wales there has been a report come out which says that should the funds ring fenced for health continue to be protected it might mean that leisure centres and libraries "unaffordable" in the future. The Welsh first minister, Labour's Carwyn Jones put his grave face on when he said that this was an "inevitable" result in the cuts by Westminster to the Welsh budget.

So the Welsh Conservatives respond in such a highly trained way you wondered whether London threw them a fish afterwards by saying that the situation was because of how Labour has mismanaged the resources it actually had.

Who is right? Well of course the answer is both. Westminster has cut, and will continue to cut the Welsh budget. On the other hand as I've documented in this blog from time to time Welsh Labour seem to prefer tackling issues with grandiose gestures rather than focusing on the nitty gritty of people need in their daily lives. You compare the Welsh Labour government with that of the SNP in Edinburgh and it fails, and miserably at that.

But for the purposes of this post I wanted to discuss the notion, which the Welsh Labour leader appeared to have accepted that to protect the health services in Wales you will need to cut leisure centres and libraries in the future.

What logic is there that the health service will be protected by cutting back on services that will help prevent health conditions? For years we have been told as a nation that we should actively participate in sport which would help to prevent heart conditions for example. So how does it help the NHS that people who could have had healthier bodies because of the proximity of a local leisure centre find it closed? You know what the increased budget will be spent on? It will be spent on people who were denied the means of participating in sports and physically suffered accordingly. False economy number one.

But there are plenty of people who will shout in protest for the leisure centre, so let me shout in protest for the library as a haven for preventative medicine instead. Dementia is a cruel disease of the mind where there is no cure. But it is known that one of the things that helps to at the very least is keeping yourself mentally as well as physically active.

Consider the library then as the leisure centre for the mind. It doesn't really matter what book you've borrowed. It could be James Joyce or James Patterson (plus one other) the point is that you've borrowed a book. Which means first that you have made the physical effort to go to a library. Then you have taken it home, then you sat down and started enjoying the quiet pleasure of turning a page whilst mentally engaging your brain.

Cutting the number of libraries will mean that this vital piece of mental stimulation for many communities will be lost. Consequently there will be a greater risk of dementia cases for the NHS to deal with. Welsh Labour Councils have already closed libraries (Rhondda Cynon Taff) or messed around with them (Bridgend). A more widespread closure programme will make the potential Alzheimer's timebomb even worse.

False economy number two.

And just to confirm I practice what I preach yesterday I finished reading Timetable of Death by Edward Marston. It's not the best Victorian police procedural I've ever read (that goes to the Inspector Cribb novels of Peter Lovesey) but taking the crime genre purely as entertainment I can't recall enjoying a book more for quite a while now.

If there is a piece of possible irritation it might be that Inspector Colbeck and his assistant Sargent Leeming might be of that brilliant upper class detective working class sidekick cliché. But I say possible because this novel is part of a series and being the first I've read (but not the first of the series, there's been at least fourteen) I don't know. Am not going to find out online either. I'll wait until another book in the series comes my way.

The other book finished yesterday was Moranthology by Caitlin Moran. A collection of her columns and articles in The Times newspaper. I loved it. One of those books where you're disappointed for having finished it.

Perhaps Welsh Labour may be interested in her essay regarding Libraries as "Cathedrals of The Soul". Explaining how to her the library was her university which gave her an education for her future life and how library closures will affect a town and the people in it.

But you won't will you Welsh Labour. You don't seem to care about books.

But think of this Welsh Labour. You may laugh at the little old lady with her piles of historical romances, Or the fifty three year old man with his crime novel set in Victorian England with added trains. But reading may mean that we are less of a burden on the NHS.

Think of that Welsh Labour.....and cut the stupid showy projects instead.

Until the next time.