In his sketch (13 January), John Crace stated that Alex Rukin, at nine years old, became the youngest person to appear before parliament. On 30 June 1994 my son, William Scott, appeared, aged seven, before an all-party parliamentary group on the family to give evidence about the importance of his after-school club and after-school care generally for working parents. It was covered by the main newspapers with headlines such as “Boy who brought straight talk to the Commons” (Daily Mail) and “MPs are told about childcare benefits by an expert, aged 7” (Daily Telegraph). MP Peter Thurman slipped a note to him while he was giving evidence, which contained a sketch of his MP colleagues and the words “Hello, Will. Don’t worry, we are all very nice really”. We still have it.
Jean Scott
Cranleigh, Surrey
