That idea of a national library card didn’t emanate from Vaizey. He doesn’t have ideas. My view of it is , that it is vaguely attractive as some kind of a headline, but isn’t a core issue. And if implemented would be very much tied in with the, if elected, Conservative enthusiasm for Ryanair pricing mechanisms for public services. That is, they attach no value to the service itself, the customer attaches value to the (additional) service and confirms that value by a willingess to pay highly for it.

In my view, this is ultimately destructive for public services, libraries and otherwise. In the case of libraries , if you are relatively poor, it just emphasises it.

As I’ve said before, Vaizey and co do seem to be having an astonishingly easy, and unquestioning, ride on the run up to an election…….