Together with the appalling story of ducks being mistreated, and an item about school pupils reluctant to be parted from their phones (Gazette, April 10), there is nationally a report of a large percentage of parents failing to meaningfully engage with their own children.

READ MORE: 'I saw yobs kick and hit ducks in Castle Park'

Weekly we hear stories of ever more violent crime, robbery, flytipping and other more serious environmental damage.

It is becoming clear that there is a progressively worrying disconnect between not just humans and the natural world, but parents and their offspring, and indeed between young people themselves and their peers.

It seems we are living now in a world of increasingly greedy and selfish people who care for nothing and no-one else other than themselves and their own pleasure.

And the ‘duck kickers’? Set a large voracious animal on them, so that they themselves may experience what a small defenceless creature might feel!

OK, so I do know that’s not going to happen!

Paul Hart

Alexandra Drive, Wivenhoe