Social security minister Jeff Rooker has been recalling his prudent undergraduate days at Aston University for the National Union of Students' magazine.
Far from indulging in the present student preoccupations of "cheap booze, clubbing and Ibiza", he managed to scrape together "a few bob" to start a cheap savings policy, which comes due next year.
"Let me just say that it should be more than enough to buy a new pair of winkle-pickers," he reveals.