My father was unemployed and I was the eldest of seven children. We were very poor. And when you ask how did we support ourselves, the only funding that we had was unemployment payments.

In working class districts, you had several families living together in the one house, and it was very difficult to get a house, because the politicians who controlled housing were doing so in a very discriminatory fashion.

My father was a civil servant, fairly sort of middle ranking, low to middle ranking. He worked almost entirely in what was then called Administrative Labour, dealing with employment and unemployment issues.

My parents were hippies. I'm the eldest of eight children.

Before the arrival of the Credit Union, people who were from the poor background or a working class background couldn't borrow from banks.

My perception of life is not to ask Francois Hollande, who isn't the father of my children, to support me financially.