SIR – The furore over the proposed changes to the Educational Maintenance Grant makes me wonder what has happened to the spirit of self-reliance in this country?

Surely, if you bring a child into the world, it is the parent’s responsibility to care for it in every way until it can look after itself, and not expect others – the taxpayers – to provide for its well being?

My wife and I have only ever considered ourselves working class, in my case working in printing, civil engineering and road transport, and getting dirt on my hands most of the time, her in the NHS; yet we managed to support our daughter at school until she was 16.

Then she went to college, followed by university with nothing over child benefit other than free tuition received, without any difficulty – including providing a car for personal transport.

However, this decline in self-sufficiency and other moral principles is the result of 13 years of Labour Government, as they have brain-washed too many into believing that only the State can provide. Thank goodness that reign of terror is over and hopefully will never return.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds