YP Letters: Snowflakes should remember trials of the past

I FEEL that I have to take issue with the column by Laura Drysdale (The Yorkshire Post, January 9) on the so-called ‘snowflake generation’.

In the past, people didn’t talk about their emotions. Life was really tough and – let’s be honest with the backcloth of two world wars and a Great Depression – what was the good of complaining?

Laura Drysdale: Why the term ‘snowflake generation’ insults intellgience of young people

Roll up your sleeves, make do and mend and don’t complain was the order of the day. Who has heard of thrift these days?

Here’s a question for you Laura – why is it that when we (as I have just demonstrated) have so much more and life offers so much more that people of today feel they have to make so much noise?

And, finally, differences in the past were settled with discussion, debate and, may I say, sometimes argument.

Not today. Instead we have to so careful where we tread in case we upset someone over some minor thing. Everyone seems so delicate.

You see I have one great advantage over you Laura – I have lived far longer in the past, and also within the present, and I am therefore able to make a more informed comparison.

Today is much easier than the past, we have so much more and life really does offer far greater opportunities. Education to your mid-20s, gap years, career breaks, full maternity leave, discussions relating to mental health, luxury holidays abroad in the sun, time to work out, flash motorcars, central heating, refrigerators, ready cook meals, wall to wall in-house entertainment, designer clothes, early retirement to name but a few.

Please always consider the plight of those who have gone before us and the sacrifices they had to make so that we, the lucky ones, can have the lives we lead.

Plan now for rising seas

From: Coun Dilys Cluer (Green), Alexandra Park, Scarborough.

THE Committee on Climate Change has issued a warning to coastal communities that up to 1.2m homes may be at increased risk from coastal floods by the 2080s. The risk is not only to low-lying areas but from cliff erosion.

According to committee member Professor Julia King, we’ve got to wake up to the fact that we’ve got some very difficult challenges ahead. Local councils need to have some honest discussions with people to help them prepare for the difficult choices they’ll face. There is not going to be sufficient money for sea defences everywhere, nor compensation for those who lose homes or businesses.

Scarborough is at risk and we need to do everything possible to guard against it. This includes maintaining sea defences in the short term, but also planning for managed retreat.

But this is nothing compared to the massive suffering, starvation, migration and war which will result if climate change gets out of hand.

The world has the knowledge to act, but we must all do so without delay, both individually and as groups and nations. Will you be part of making a more hopeful future?

Back our libraries

From: Matthew Smith, Hillsborough, Sheffield.

LIBRARIES are a valuable resource for all of us, valuable for our communities for education, entertainment and enlightenment. They are also often the only place for those without the resource of a computer to access the internet.

Libraries are access to knowledge, and knowledge is power. The library books I have read have entertained me, moved me and changed my life. Libraries are unarguably a bastion of civilisation.

Since the start of austerity, there have been hundreds of libraries and thousands of library staff lost across the UK. It doesn’t have to be like this. There is a petition calling on the government to protect library services by ringfencing government funding for libraries.

The petition can be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/228742.

Support for libraries in Sheffield and elsewhere is – like the library books I forgot to return on time – overdue.

Let down by our market

From: Ann Wood, Halifax.

I HAVE lived all my life in Halifax and have seen many changes within the town centre, but not all have been for the better. Most towns have a market which draws people into the town, but sadly not Halifax.

The Halifax Borough Market has gone downhill drastically. It is a cold dreary place with nothing to encourage people into it. Half of the antique heaters hanging from the roof are broken, and some have been for the past two years.

The public toilets are, and have been for years, absolutely disgusting.

All the money which has been spent on the Piece Hall has drawn many people into the town which is brilliant, but what a let down when those people see the state of our Borough Market. Something needs to be done and fast.

Bring our market back to the busy thriving place it used to be when it was managed properly by people who cared.

Get a grip, Sir Andy

From: Susan Dennis, Ripon.

ONCE upon a time there was a handsome young man who had a charming wife, two delightful young daughters, a knighthood, a successful hotel business, a beautiful home, several million pounds in the bank, two bonny dogs and both his own legs.

But listening to him on the radio you would have thought that he was a deprived child whose goldfish had been flushed down the loo. Grow up Sir Andy Murray.