The deeds and misdeeds of Tim Coates, bookseller turned self-styled library campaigner
We saw this the other day, a fan site where people, predominately women, gather to debate the oddly compelling charm of Julian Assange, he of Wikileaks fame: http://julianassangeisgorgeous.tumblr.com/
Some critics think we're too negative about Tim. Snide is a word we've heard. Our shoulders are broad, but if he's so great, there's nothing stopping you building http://timcoatesisgorgeous.tumblr.com. We've checked. It's free.
Our hero has frequently shared with the world his belief that there is no need for any library closures, but that library budgets could be cut, as if by magic, without any adverse effect on services. For the latest example see this post: There is no need to close a library.
We always thought this naïve at best. In the light of Eric Pickles' proposals announced today, we wonder if Perkins the Wondercat will change his tune.
CoatesWatch had a whip-round; we've decided to forgo our usual evening tipple of a bottle of white cider each, and spent the money instead for the enlightenment of library campaigners everywhere. It cost us £2 from Companies House.
So what do we know? Lots of the Certificate of Incorporation is blank, but the salient points are these:
Address: 50 Isledon Street, London, N7 7LP (this seems to be a generic address for lots of companies, such as Aqua Terra Leisure, who run privatised swimming pools (this does not dispose us well towards them, need we say?) and the Iseldon Partnership. One wonders if it is one of those dubious pseudo-offices which offer addresses and mail handling for all comers, fraudsters, terrorists, et al
The directors: William Iain Wolseley, born 12/2/47, management consultant, William Timothy Coates, born 11/illegible/49, author, and Jonathan Gibbs, another management consultant, a young 'un, born on 7/4/56. There's then a list of subscribers, the same three, but this time at home addresses in Bristol, Hampstead and Stoke Newington. This is information anyone can see, but we won't embarrass them by publishing them here.
We'll say more about the articles of association another time.
After the razzmatazz of its launch in an 'important speech' at a venue quite near London's exclusive Mayfair district, the Libraries Alliance went all quiet, but now we know: it needs cash.
In a post today, we learn that, 'in the case of public libraries, Library Alliance is being set up to try to improve the quality of the dialogue between local councillors, specifically and local people. It wants to cut through all the various forms and stages of advice that are given by others unless there are genuine reasons why those are needed'. We have to confess ourselves puzzled. The second sentence isn't written in the clearest English, but the thought behind it is even more opaque. Who are all these unnecessary advisors lurking behind hedges, ready to leap out and frighten us?
It continues, 'I am looking for moral and financial support to do this - if anyone reading this has access to means. This project will in the end replace CIPFA and the MLA, and all those bodies and it will replace them with a properly informed dialogue between people who read and local councillors who provide libraries". Here we find ourselves once more baffled. 'CIPFA and the MLA, and all those bodies'; all what bodies? And a dialogue between people who read and councillors who provide libraries sounds a little limited. How might it go?
People who read: Don't close our library
Councillors: Sorry, no money
People who read: Oh well, in that case, fair enough. Good to have a properly informed dialogue, though
Exeunt omnes
We're charitable types; indeed only this morning we put 2p in the Chamber of Commerce's collection to give the pensioners, bless them, some Christmas cheer. But we're disinclined to put our hands in our pockets for the LIbrary Alliance. Try Mr Cameron; he's quite wealthy, we understand, and may approve of what you're doing.
