Readers' letters - February 8

New figures from Public Health England have revealed that life expectancy in some parts of the country has fallen by more than a year since 2011.

People in post-industrial towns and isolated rural areas are dying younger.

Economic stagnation and cuts to services such as social care are among theories suggested for consistent falls in life expectancy of over half a decade in dozens of local authority areas.

Nationally, female life expectancy at birth is static at 82.9 years and male life expectancy stands at 79.2 years, while people in other European countries live increasingly longer.

The areas where people in Britain were dying sooner seemed to be the less “economically vibrant”, but they are not dying of new diseases.

In rural areas, the lack of social infrastructure is significant with a lack of community groups, poor public transport and a lack of family support.

The findings also cast doubt over the government’s plan to raise the state pension age (SPA) to 68, seven years earlier than planned — affecting all those aged between 39 and 47.

There are reasons why the older generation have lived longer. This is the generation that sacrificed their young adulthood fighting the dark forces of Europe with a will to live. They also had food rationing from 1940 to 1954, unlike the fast food consuming and inactive young generations of today whose life expectancy will be far less than today’s pensioners.

Derek Barton

North West Lancashire Pensioners, Preston

defence

Don’t cut our armed forces

What is the Government thinking of, cutting any

of our armed forces?

They are already in a lamentable state and now it seems that the Royal Marines are likely to be cut by 1,000.

Both Labour and Conservative Governments have reduced our armed forces drastically.

We should be strengthening them not cutting them.

Billions could be made available if Theresa May scrapped vanity projects like HS2 and Hinckley Point power station and cut overseas aid.

At the height of the

Cold War, the RAF boasted more than 30 combat squadrons.

They now have six.

The Royal Navy had more than 50 warships and two aircraft carriers, we now have 18.

The Army had twice the numbers we have now.

If Argentina decided to take back the Falklands, what are we going to defend them with?

Get your priorities right Mrs May.

Terry Watson

Address supplied

nostalgia

Are you a Hagin?

Re: Today’s Looking Back.

Amongst the documents of my late father, I came across a letter card written by George and Grace Hagin, who lived at 39 Greenbank Street, Preston, Lancashire.

They were writing to Mr H Palmer, of The Queens Head, Foulsham, Norfolk, and this letter was posted on August 19, 1924.

Postage then was just three half pence.

The Queens Head is still a pub.

I have tried to trace

any descendants of the Hagin family without success.

The only record I found was a George Hagin, who married a Grace S.P. Laird in Preston in 1919.

It would be nice if we could trace a descendant and pass the letter to

them.

It is not in the best of condition but is still very legible.

Philip Wade

Suffolk

n Email [email protected] or ring 01772 554537 if you’re a descendant of the Hagins and we will pass your details on to Philip

football

Smiling faces

Me, my nephew and my brother were three of the Faces in the Crowd on Saturday against Hull City (LP February 3).

We played a lot better than we have over the last few games at Deepdale

and, even without Hugill being sold to West Ham United, it was satisfying to watch.

We started a bit

sluggish but eventually we started to come into the game.

The team was solid.

Darnell Fisher was outstanding and Callum Robinson, pictured, had a great game.

Even though we were behind 1-0, we never hung our heads.

We got back at them and eventually that paid off when Cunningham equalized.

And when we got a penalty – second in a week – well, the Town End went mental.

We have some tough games ahead over the next few weeks but we have nothing to fear and teams will now fear playing us.

It’s always great to go home with a smile when we win and be positive about the performance rather than have a moan.

Brian

Kessick

via email