I wholeheartedly agree with Alastair Campbell’s call for a “nationwide state-school alumni network” (If you went to state school, do you ever feel British life is rigged against you? Welcome to the 93% Club, 19 June). As someone from the 93% who left a secondary school – in Walthamstow, east London – many years ago with no academic qualifications, I know the feeling.
After years wandering around low-level criminality and unskilled “cash in hand” jobs, I was lucky that a youth worker presented me with two options: carry on earning money through dodgy activities, including following up individuals with outstanding debts for the infamous Kray twins, and end up in prison; or use my brain and get myself off to university.
