Oh, dear. We seem to have a bit of a flurry from unhappy elderly Sussex residents bemoaning the perceived decline in the standards of the nation (JKC and R J Allam).

Having spoken at length with my elderly parents, it becomes clear that life was not as rosy as these two correspondents would care to remember.

Diseases were rife, life expectancy was shorter, there was no NHS, unemployment was high, there was a depression and fascism came to dominate Europe, with even Oswald Mosley gaining respectability in Britain.

It is obvious that life appeared rosier in those halcyon days because we now have access to 24-hour media and instant knowledge.

Events that occur in one area of the country can be instantly reported nationally, thus making us aware of events that would not have been covered in earlier times.

The apparent sensationalism of society with celebrities, royalty and crime is nothing new. Witness the headlines surrounding the Titanic, the R101 disaster, the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII, the Profumo scandal and the Moors murders.

From their comments, I am sure JKC and R J Allam should have fought the Second World War alongside the Wehrmacht, as I believe it was Nazi Germany that harshly imprisoned in concentration camps all its "namby-pamby do-gooders", then the gipsies, homosexuals and, finally, the Jews.

Those were truly golden days indeed.

-Andrew Landmann, Phoenix Halls of Residence, Brighton University, Southover Street, Brighton