Workworld begins to bite

With 200 blogs under my belt I'm beginning to suffer from blog fatigue. There have a been a few days recently when I have started a blog and thought: what the hell? Like that day back in the 1950s when a radio newsreader on the Light programme announced "There is no news today." Those were the days.

Things that gripped me in the train carriage on a morning have faded by the time I get to my screen on an evening and just lately I have been travelling up and down to London a little bit more than I had planned.

Last week, for instance, I had marked out every day in my diary to got to the British Library and do some book research. Then other things intervened - a lunch here, a meeting there and before I knew it the precious library week was lost.

If I'm not careful this free agent lifestyle is going to begin looking a little too much like a job again.

Two of the days last week, however, were spent doing voluntary work, one judging the annual Work Foundation Workworld awards for journalists and the other attending a trustee board meeting at Earthwatch Europe.

The media awards were as revealing as ever. It's a shame that the deliberations must be kept in confidence.

Earthwatch has been experiencing quite a few changes as it begins to tackle a big new delivery programme funded by HSBC bank. The US-side of the charity has been struggling to fill places in the programme as travelling becomes less attractive for Americans because of the weak dollar and continuing fears over international terrorism.

But the charity I'm sure is robust enough to overcome these problems. In the meantime its work with companies and the learning modules it is developing for employees are taking it in to some exciting areas in employee learning and development. Companies that are trying to come to terms with the growing environmental issues of our time can and do find a well of inspiration and expertise in the Earthwatch family.

Earthwatch programmes are open to everyone. I have been on two in the past, in Poland and in Madagascar. I'd like Gill to go on another one but haven't persuaded her yet. The last one she attended involved catching crocodiles in the Okavango delta and I'm wondering if she thought I was trying to get rid of her.

British Library - balancing the books

Criticising landmark developments is the great British disease. The Channel Tunnel, the Millennium Dome, Wembley Stadium - they never had a chance. Now it's the turn of the Olympic complex. We wanted the Olympics in the UK. I remember cheering when I heard we had won the bid. But already the carping has started. Any big project such as this is going to incur cost overruns. It goes with the territory.

Do you remember how people criticised the British Library as a white elephant? It cost £500m and took 20 years to build from concept to opening. Even Prince Charles couldn't resist a jibe, describing it as a "secret police building." He was wrong. The British Library is a magnificent building, particularly on the inside which must offer some of the best facilities for undertaking concentrated work that I have found anywhere.

Part of its secret is what is not there: no telephones, no interruptions, no noise. Instead there is comfortable seating with strong, broad desks and an efficient ordering and delivery service. More than that, for those of us who use it,the service is a tangible return for the money we pay in taxes.

A well stocked, efficient library, offering free access to those of a nation's citizens who wish to read and research in quiet contemplation must form the bedrock of any reasonable definition of civilization. The only improvement that could and should be made to the British Library is to extend its reading services to other locations outside London.

But this isn't going to happen. What should be part of our birthright, the principle of unfettered access to one of the world's greatest collections of the written word, is under threat. The British Library has warned that it might need to start charging readers for its services, if the Treasury goes ahead with proposed cuts to its budget.

I hope this is no more than posturing, the sort of heavyweight barging that always takes place when Government departments are competing for their slice of the pie. My reading pass is a treasured possession. I love the British Library in the same way that I love the British Museum and the National Gallery. I love them most of all because their doors are open, offering free entry to all who visit.

You might run the world's biggest company and rub shoulders with the power elite every year in Davos, but if you want to see the Wilton Diptych or Vermeer's Young Woman seated at a Virginal you will have no better view than the man on the Clapham omnibus.

Last week the Government was starting a debate on Britishness. For me it starts with fair play and free access. The British Library didn't charge Lenin or Marx. I hope it won't charge me.