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The Spectator 12 February 2011 includes: A HEATH cartoon for Portrait of the Week - Local Government Book Burning Any Other Business article by Martin Vander Weyer: Which would you rather save - your local library or a County Hall paper-pusher "Councils have sought to present library closures, of which there could be more than 400, as a fait accompli. But they have met a wall of protest and legal challenges, and their arithmetic is far from persuasive. In North Yorkshire, 22 libraries are under the axe unless communities come up with 'Big Society' (that is, cheap) solutions to keep them open. But the average running cost last year was just £35,000 per library, while the county employed more than 100 managers on salaries of £50,000 or more - including the very officers who declare that libraries must go in order to protect more essential spending items, such as themselves. For the loss of just 15 County Hall paper-pushers, in effect, our treasured network of libraries could be saved." Later in the same article, he suggests that Bob Diamond could pool his £9.5 million bonus with Lord Green's entitlement to £3.6 million, and the £2.4 million bonus awarded to Stephen Hester to offer a year's reprieve for all the threatened small-town libraries in England. "A gesture like that might even herald the end of the 'period of remorse and apology for banks' to which Bob recently referred. The ball's in your court, chaps".