HOW did a poor young lad like me survive being born in the 1950s without the so called experts supervising my existence.

Me and my mates being sent off to play in the hot countryside sun all day with only a sandwich and a bottle of pop for sustenance and not a squirt of factor 50 would today surely be classed as child abuse.

But we survived and as we got older spent those self same hot summer days out in the fields in just a pair of shorts making hay.

The heat and length of the heatwave of 1976 beats anything we’ve had for years, but somehow, even without ‘the experts’ we survived.

I’m sure there are more countries than not in this world where temperatures much hotter than what we have are the norm year in year out but they somehow struggle on regardless, many to cater for British tourists who go there to enjoy what the experts are telling them to avoid.

Or are they holidaying there to avoid the experts?. Please you experts, have a day off and let us enjoy this rare treat, anybody getting burnt once will learn from it without your help.

Paul Morley

Long Preston