SIR – You report that Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, thinks that British teenagers should be encouraged to take up Saturday and after-school jobs.
My parents separated when I was nine. We lived in a council house. When my father left, he took pretty well everything. I’m not judging him, but that was how it was. My mother and my three brothers and sisters had nothing in the house apart from our clothes and our beds.
I was the eldest son. From that day on, I never asked my mother for anything. I washed neighbours’ cars, mowed lawns, cleaned windows and I eventually found myself helping the village baker deliver bread.
Through hard work and determination, I now head a successful...