Your comment deserves a longer answer than that. I comment on lots of things that are very far away from my home. However, it’s true that I recall seeing nothing in the public domain attacking Tim’s wish for a united London library authority under the mayor. It is therefore only Tim’s views that are present. There is simply not much out there on the subject for me to get a strong view on. I would love to see more information and views so that people, such as myself or – better – those with power, can make an informed judgement.

I would personally imagine that the wisdom of a London mayor running libraries depends on the mayor in question. Some who show a strong interest, and it would have to be a strong interest to make it work in the early years, may do a good job. Others, who are uninterested or, worse, don’t know they don’t know enough, may make things worse. Imagine the Mayor of Doncaster running all of London’s libraries for a view of the disaster that could happen.

There is also the localism agenda to consider, so popular amongst all parties. A London mayor running London libraries may be perfectly in line with this agenda while at the same time also be perfectly in line with one of the other Big Ideas of the moment – that of cost-cutting agenda of merging library authorities. That’s a rare combination and may be a political winner for both main parties, however beneficial or otherwise the reality on the ground may be.

The main point though is that to a layman – which I must count myself to some extent on this issue as I don’t know the London situation well enough – Tim’s views are attractive. As another campaigner, Desmond Clarke, often says, there appear to be simply too many authorities around. If one accepts (I don’t to the extent that both main parties do) that severe cuts have to be made then merging the authorities and sacking (remember this is not my view but that I imagine many will have) a lot of chiefs makes sense.

It is up to those who hold different views and know about the realities of the situation to put their view forward. This will be happening behind the scenes. I have seen a little of it myself. However, not much of it is in the public domain and it is the public domain that I comment upon and that the taxpayer/voter makes his mind up on.

This leads to a wider question. Librarians are generally terrible about putting their views in the public domain. There are many reasons for this, many of them good ones, but it means that in a political/economical situation the profession is at a disadvantage. We’re getting better at it. Let’s hope we get the time enough to be good enough to win the argument. Or we’ll lose it and the country will that be so much the poorer for it.

In Doncaster, having an ‘elected mayor’ allows for a mayoral veto to be cast on “almost all policies” agreed by elected representatives on the council, thus rendering them impotent.

For hundreds of years the leading lights of this country have carefully built up an intricate infrastructure to ensure that democracy is protected — until now.

To overlook the repercussions of endowing one individual with presidential powers, be it an elected mayor or elected police chief, enables that precious infrastructure to be threatened.

If we are not “vigilant”, all of us will pay a heavy price that may, as in Doncaster, begin with Libraries but will surely not end with them.