We made the UK great

First we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma our baby cribs were covered with bright lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children we would ride in cars without seatbelts or air bags, we drank water from the garden hose, not a plastic bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends and no-one actually died from this. We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it. We weren't overweight because we were always outside playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day as long as we were home when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day and we were OK.

We did not have video games or Sky TV . . . we had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth but there were no lawsuits for these accidents.

These generations have produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! We had freedom, success, failure and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it all.

All of this before the Government and lawyers regulated our lives (for our own good!).

Congratulations - we made Britain great.

Mr C Smith, Shrewsbury