I live in the UK, have done my entire life, and have also been an intermitted user of libraries throughout my life - often at points when I couldn't afford the books I wanted to buy (particularly when I was a student).

I love books. I always have done, and most of my Christmas presents this year have been books (only 3, but you get the point). They are so incredibly important for opening up the vistas of thought and imagination that are available to you, that I don't think it can be overstated. And the UK government has been on a course of destroying libraries and a wide range of other cultural and societal infrastructure that it can't be overstated how scary this is.

Gove was responsible for stripping out a great deal of the syllabus in the UK - support for 'meaningless' subjects such as music, and music technology which I used to teach until the funding was removed from schools and it fell by the wayside for most schools as it was too expensive to keep going once equipment needed to be replaced. He is a man who feels he is an expert in every area, despite being anything but. Others in the government seem to be much the same, not seeing the point in anything they can't personally profit from.

Many of the subjects that are now struggling aren't public interest, and I wasn't too surprised. But this will destroy any chance that a generation will have to have access to the many-faceted wonders that a library can provide. The UK is sleep-walking into a desolate, dystopian future where knowledge is derided in favour of three-word soundbites and self-interest. The BBC will fall foul of the government once Brexit is out of the way, with all that brings.

I'm 48, and I can't remember any other time where I've actually despaired about the future for my (step) kids, and where I've felt that the government really is out of control. The way that the last election went was a damning indictment of the (pathetic) opposition in this country, and Johnson and his cronies (such as Gove) now have carte blanche to do as they please. By the time they are finished, so much structural damage will have been done to this country's institutions I think it will be next to impossible to repair what's been done, even if there is the political will to do anything about it.