In an Edwardian red-brick library in south London, 15 people are holed up in among the stacks of books. The group occupied the building in protest at plans to close the library temporarily, reopening it as a “bookish gym”, with paid leisure services run by social enterprise GLL, and a smaller selection of books for borrowers.
Libraries in Lambeth experience a million visits a year, and are well-used in a borough typical of London, with pockets of extreme wealth and deprivation often within walking distance of each other. Providing internet access is a lifeline for people told to apply for a certain number of jobs online or else lose their benefits. At weekends Brixton library has a child on every computer, and I’ve never found an empty reading booth to work in.
Lambeth council points out that with swingeing cuts, it is forced to slash services, or provide them “creatively” to carry on providing them to residents. No one denies the council has been hit hard by cuts, but protesters feel the libraries are precious enough to warrant full protection. Some councillors in the borough have been less than sympathetic towards the occupiers. “While they knock back wine in the library, almost 5,000 homeless Lambeth children go to bed in temp accommodation,” is what one tweeted over the weekend.
While they knock back wine in the library, almost 5000 homeless Lambeth children go to bed in temp accommodation... https://t.co/DjjLrVLWtC
— Matthew Bennett (@CllrMattBennett) April 2, 2016
Understandably, supporters of the library bridle at this argument: calling for a library to remain open does not lay the blame for the localised effects of the housing crisis at your door. By defending one public service, you aren’t arguing for all others to close. Lambeth councillors seem to have misunderstood that the fault of the current fiscal situation in the town hall should lie with the people responsible for budget cuts and austerity, not local people refusing to lie down and take the blows.
A far bigger story revealed this weekend what many have long suspected: the world’s elites are hoarding wealth offshore in vast sums to avoid paying tax. Those involved include heads of state, monarchs, and politicians. David Cameron’s week has been made gruelling by the revelations about his late father’s offshore dealings, and the Panama Papers have scalped the Icelandic prime minister.
The revelations are far-reaching and there will be more to come, but already defenders of the status quo are attempting to downplay the implications. So what, if the rich put their money in banks? Why must people be punished for working hard? The professional cynics miss the point. The Panama Papers reveal a culture whereby people become so wealthy they believe they are exempted from the social contract. Systems exist whereby people with more money than anyone could possibly need in a lifetime are able to hide it and so avoid basic taxation. The poorest, meanwhile, are taxed at source.
In turn, countries miss out on huge chunks of tax revenue, and public services suffer. More than £170bn of UK property is now held by overseas owners, with 10% of that property owned by companies linked to Mossack Fonseca. Some 2,800 Mossack Fonseca companies appear on a Land Registry list of overseas property owners dating from 2014. The companies are connected to more than 6,000 title deeds worth at least £7bn, although likely to be far more. Michael Geoghegan, the former chief executive of HSBC, held his £8m Kensington townhouse through an offshore company, planning to avoid tax by renting the property to himself.
The UK is in a double bind: these tax havens divert millions from the Treasury, while the wealth of the same tax avoiders is heavily distorting the housing market. So if you’re made homeless because you’re priced out, the services that would traditionally help you are closing too.
If it weren’t for these tax havens, it would be highly likely Lambeth could afford both a library for locals and also house families on its waiting lists.
The enemies, councillors should note, are not the campaigners fighting to keep their library open, but the people shirking all responsibility to wider society for the sake of their own greed.
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