Last week I emailed Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and President of the Board of Trustees for Maidstone Museum to ask for her support to stop the redundancies at the museum. Clearly I didn't hold out much hope - this is her reply:
Dear Stuart
Many thanks indeed for your email.
I recognise the fantastic work and expertise Dr Ed Jarzembowski has brought to Maidstone Museum, but leave all decisions relation to staffing to the management team in place. It would be improper for me to involve myself in the day to day workings of Maidstone Museum.
My office has been assured by Simon Lace, Museums and Heritage Manager at Maidstone Borough Council, that Maidstone Museum will continue to flourish following a necessary restructuring. There will be a new focus on display and interpretation of artefacts, and I am sure the 60 years or so of combined experience the curators and Simon have will ensure our fantastic museum continues to thrive in the years to come.
As you know, the Government has to get a tight grip on the public finances –paying £120 million a day in debt interest alone is clearly unsustainable. To say cuts to public spending is politically motivated and based on poor economics is not true. The last Government’s legacy to Britain is the largest budget deficit in the EU aside from Ireland. Thanks to its recklessness, the nation's deficit is running at £155bn. We are now borrowing one pound for every four we spend – increasing our national debt by £3 billion a week. If we carry on at that pace, in five years’ time the interest we will pay on our debt could be around £70 billion. This means we could be paying more on debt interest than on educating our children, protecting our planet, and transporting people around Britain.
Yours sincerely
Helen Grant MP
Green Party campaigner in Kent. Also a nurse, academic, former manager, writer, Druid, husband and father...
1 comment:
Are the sackings to do with the cuts Mrs Grant spends so long justifying, or aren't they? According to a council spokesperson who spoke to Kent on Sunday, Dr Ed was not made redundant, but"is retiring", and the heritage budget is not being cut. Did the other four people "retire", too? As for the budget, if it hasn't been cut, but posts have been cut, does that mean staff are paying for the new extension with their jobs?
The spokesperson also said:
"“We are moving the emphasis away from a stuffy old museum and we want it to be involving for the visitors.
“With the new emphasis, there will be new people.”
Stuffy? Wait a minute, I thought we all agreed the museum was "fantastic"! And are they calling Dr Ed stuffy? Remember that wacky photo of him with his KM picture byline? Stuffy?
I don't know who this spokesperson is, but they need to get their story straight.
Check out the KOS report on http://www.kentnews.co.uk/mobile/news/online_petition_to_save_maidstone_museum_staff_1_959488
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