Free books for children to be axed

The Guardian newspaper reports that the Booktrust charity's £13M grant from the UK Government is being cancelled.

According to the report:

The Booktrust charity runs several programmes that together provide free books for children from the age of nine months until their first term of secondary school when they are 11, and is widely admired by teachers, parents and authors.

They began as a pilot project in 1992 but were awarded government funding in 2004 to become universal. But 10 days ago – despite having previously offered to take a 20% funding cut – the charity was told it was to lose 100% of its £13m-a-year government grant.

Please read the article in full to get all the details. Outspoken authors, literary figures etc have already denounced the move.

It is impossible to estimate the value of this scheme for young people growing up today. It would be flirting with Godwin's Law to liken this move to the society in Fahrenheit 451, but the temptation is there. Reading, learning, and more importantly, learning to learn and to think, are valuable and vital to a vibrant democratic society and it is no accident that one of the first things socialists did in this country in the 19th and early 20th century, was to fund books for the working men (and in those days they were aimed at men specifically, for the most part) so that knowledge could set them free.

Now it seems as though keeping knowledge reserved for the already wealthy and powerful has become a plank of the Tory-run coalition government's approach.

I can't express strongly enough my disgust at this move and I want strongly to encourage everyone to add their voices to the protest.

Books got me started in life and learning, and are still a vital step in life for millions of others.