A Book For Christmas - but it'll cost you

Guess what, readers: the Con-Dem government are not only scrapping the pittance of an allowance for 16-18 year olds, and not only scrapping funding for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Teaching at universities, and not only cutting front line services and jobs galore in the public sector in order to produce this “Pig Society” that Thatcher never managed to finish creating, but they are now playing a really long game: scrapping the “book start” programme.

 

Book Start is a simple idea to help society: a nice little A4 sized folder is given to parents and their toddlers in local libraries, shopping centres or nurseries; folders which contain a couple of little books and pens and pencils, designed to encourage an interest in reading at an early age. Lovely gesture. Nice touch. Just the thing to get littlens interested in reading – a folder of their very own.

 

But the Con-Dems are scrapping this, because investing a small amount in encouraging toddlers to read is clearly something that needs to be cut as a necessary and unavoidable part of the painful process to reduce the government deficit. There is no alternative, is there? And of course it’s just an unfortunate coincidence that the socio-economic demographic that is going to suffer most dramatically and unequivocally is the poorest in society.

 

All I want for Christmas is the overthrowing of this contemptible disgrace of a Pig Society government that has no mandate for any of the things it is doing.

 

If you can help me to work out a way to do this, I will be happy.

 

(Where is Labour in all of this, by the way?)