Ill child

T is ill. He was a bit funny on Sunday, had a rash on Monday, and the doctor advised him to stay home. Mrs C stayed at home on Monday, and I had him on Tuesday. Tonight it's obvious he's got some sort of stomach bug and I'l be home again with him on Thursday.

This is the first time he's been properly ill, and the first time that I've had that parental thing of not knowing what to do. Doc said it's not serious and I'm sure she's right, but T is unhappy and obviously doesn't know what to do with himself.

Meanwhile, I'm uncomfortable with the fact that we've got to ride it out and, beyond cuddles, there's not much I can do.

Interesting reactions from colleagues, though. Very clear that the unspoken assumption from some is that it is my wife who should stay home and not me.

Street drinkers

You put up with street drinkers in Ladywell. We're near a town centre, a hospital and the council offices. We've got parks. Sad to say, but it goes with the territory.

I am loath to judge. I don't know what brings people to this pass, but it is an issue that needs acting upon. Of course the health service and the local authority are doing things.

But do others have a responsibility? One of the shops on Ladywell Road keeps a bottle opener under the counter so that drinkers can have their super strength booze opened for them before they leave the shop. This means they are drinking immediately as they walk down the road.

Is this acceptable? Is it any less acceptable than selling Special Brew in the first place? Or am I completely over-reacting?

I'd be interested to know what people think.

The end of the sporting summer

I marked the return of winter sport with a trip to see Bristol Rugby lose at home to Bath. Any derby defeat is depressing, but with Bristol tipped for relegation, there was no encouraging defiance. Excluding, of course, the David Lemi wonder try which was easily one of the best in my two seasons on the Memorial Ground terraces. Scant consolation, though.

The summer has been much more enjoyable. Although England lost the test series to South Africa, the Pieterson era promises much - certainly excitement, if not success. I was at the Oval for his first game in charge and saw him batter that century. Since then the Proteas have convincingly been seen off in the one day series, and I'm looking forward to the Ashes with a renewed optimism.

Of course, the Olympics was fantastic, and I'm suspending all personal concerns and looking forward to 2012. It will be London's Olympics, but the lesson of Beijing is that its heroes are as likely to be from Mansfield or Edinburgh as they are from the capital.

We need to ensure that the Olympics are Britain's games, no matter what face we present to the world.

Kestrel

In case you've not seen it, there's a kestrel living on Hilly Fields. I saw it swooping menacingly over the uncut meadow area this morning, and then it helpfully sat on a lampost and allowed me to take a rather poor photo.

Apparently, they're not unusual in the middle of a city, but this is the first time I've seen one.

Obviously, the support for wildlife is paying off. Good stuff.

Just who are you to say that?

Of all the poor benighted cultural institutions in this country, the one that attracts more ill informed comment than any other is the humble public library. Last weekend saw another classic of the kind, as the Observer's Hephzibah Anderson added her complaint.

I don't rely on, but I do use Lewisham's libraries. They're nothing special, and do provide me with access to the information and books that I need when I need them. Like the time my broadband fell over and I needed to get online, or when I needed a travel book, or that text for my evening class.

But it's since my little boy has come on the scene that they have come into their own. T so loves his trips to Bounce and Rhyme at Lewisham that he goes for a second helping at Crofton Park. In doing so he's learning to communicate and to engage, and he's learning to be at home in the library, which I hope provides a foundation for him to help him learn and to have fun throughout his life.

I'm a fan of libraries, no question, and (as regular readers of this blog now) as a committed localist I have an understanding of the role they play in local communities.

Which is why I get so upset when I read articles like Anderson's. They want to kick T out of the library and replace him with a mini-Bodleian. They just don't get where libraries are now.

Libraries are about providing access to information and to literature in settings that are appropriate to the communities that they serve, and this goes completely against the 1950s views of Anderson et al.

The public library exists so that those who would otherwise be unable to access the information and literature they need can do so in a setting that is social and communal. That vision needs to be constantly refreshed as technologies, society and places change.

Libraries never were about being palaces of books, but the argument that they were and that they should be again is sadly dominant in our broadsheets and amongst our cultural commentators. They drown out the voices of those who actually understand libraries and know their role in national and local life.

Anderson as good as admits this:

Like plenty of people who count themselves supporters of public libraries, it had been a while since I last stepped inside one.

So, who is Hephzibah Anderson? If she's not been in a library for years, what else qualifies her to pontificate on what they should be about? According to Jewish Quarterly, she is:

deputy fiction critic for The Observer, Fiction Editor of the Daily Mail, and a visual arts writer for the Evening Standard. She sits on the editorial board of the Jewish Quarterly, and writes regularly for the Jewish Chronicle, the New Statesman and Zembla Magazine. She also reviews for BBC Radio London and BBC Radio 2.

So, we can safely assume that she knows nothing about what libraries do and what they are about. Sadly, this doesn't stop her or her colleagues in the arts pages, or novelists (now, there's a producer interest!) lecturing the rest of the world.

Such people are the only obvious participants in what is a very one sided debate. Let's hope local councils listen to their communities, not the siren voices of the Sunday papers.