Stop sneering and stand up for our great nation

Why do so many young people sneer at Britain? That was the question Charlotte Gill posed in her column last week. The answer? Because they are taught to. We no longer teach children proper history and no longer give them something of which to be proud. Instead we teach them how bad the British (and the English in particular) have been to almost everyone else.

Is it any wonder that by the time the privileged few get to university, they are so unaware of their own country’s past that they are fair game for Left-wing lecturers who wish to indoctrinate them?

It is time we stood up for our country. We have much to be proud of. We fought to end slavery from the 1830s. In contrast, America was still enforcing discrimination in the 1950s but is not pilloried for it.

No one these days seems to put historic acts into context, instead insisting on viewing past events with a modern consciousness.

As for young people thinking that it is time for communism, ask anyone who has lived under that regime about what it is like and their answer is likely to be unprintable.

Pat Reed, Gamesley, Derbyshire What an excellent piece on patriotism last week from Charlotte Gill. Perhaps the most worrying thing is that the generation she targets is the one that will shortly be starting families of their own and passing on this apathy to their children.

A. Palfreyman, Sheffield I’m a millennial living in London and I agree with Charlotte that my generation isn’t the most patriotic. But there are reasons for this. First, many people, especially the younger generation, are sick of hearing about our triumphs and about how Britain is going to show the rest of the world after Brexit.

Millennials are well informed and independent in their thoughts, and, like me, they see so much imbalance in Britain. I’ll probably never be able to afford a house, so it’s hard for people like me to have any patriotism for a country that only seems to look after the rich.

V. de Bheal, London Britain is a brilliant country. It has long been a democracy and created constitutional governments in more than 50 nations of the old Empire. And we have saved Europe in continental and world wars. P. Wilson, Nuneaton There has been a suggestion recently that young people should be given £10,000 for them to get on the housing ladder. But we worked since we were 15 years old, got married on a budget, initially rented our house, then saved a deposit so that we could buy it.

We did more than one job to make ends meet, doing without washing machines or TVs, and buying basic furniture.

And we had to take unpaid leave when babies were born, had to make do and mend, and had no one to borrow from when times were difficult. However, we got through these trials as there was no alternative. Maureen Arnfield, Leyland, Lancashire