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Proposed Reductions In Funding For The Library Of Birmingham

EDM number 682 in 2014-15, proposed by Roger Godsiff on 13/01/2015.
Categorised under the topics of Libraries, Local government and Public expenditure.

That this House notes with great concern the plans to severely cut the funding available to the Library of Birmingham, which would result in the loss of more than half of the library's staff and many of its services, including the loss of archive and research facilities; observes that Birmingham City Council's funding from central Government has been cut heavily over the course of the current Government, and that poorer cities such as Birmingham have received a disproportionately heavy share of spending cuts; condemns the decision to cut Birmingham's funding by an amount equivalent to £147 per household this year, compared to the national average of just £45; does not see why the citizens of Birmingham should have their library services destroyed in an attempt to cut a deficit that was caused by paying for the gambling debts of bankers, not by supporting essential cultural services for UK citizens; encourages the Government to take serious and concerted action to reclaim for the Exchequer the many billions of public funds which are currently lost to corporate tax avoidance; strongly supports the attempt to find alternate ways to keep the library open and maintain it as a centre of excellence, and wishes this campaign every success; believes that the whole of the UK would be the poorer without its world-class libraries, which play a vital role in education and research; and calls on the Government to urgently reconsider its ongoing slashing of local government funding.

This motion has been signed by a total of 11 MPs.

MPDateConstituencyPartyType
Roger Godsiff13/01/2015Birmingham, Hall GreenLabourProposed
Ronnie Campbell14/01/2015Blyth ValleyLabourSeconded
Kelvin Hopkins14/01/2015Luton NorthLabourSeconded
Jeremy Corbyn15/01/2015Islington NorthLabourSeconded
Mike Hancock20/01/2015Portsmouth SouthLiberal DemocratSeconded
John McDonnell20/01/2015Hayes and HarlingtonLabourSeconded
John Pugh22/01/2015SouthportLiberal DemocratSigned
Valerie Vaz22/01/2015Walsall SouthLabourSigned
David Anderson23/01/2015BlaydonLabourSigned
Stephen McCabe27/01/2015Birmingham, Selly OakLabourSigned
Khalid Mahmood04/02/2015Birmingham, Perry BarrLabourSigned

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