AS an 84-year-old marching round the streets of York the other day in the company of hundreds of young people making clear their commitment to the unity of mankind and their refusal to accept the stigmatisation of foreigners, it made me aware how lucky my generation has been to have lived in an era of hope and co-operation between the nations.

I have witnessed the establishment of the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the association of South East Asian Nations, and have seen them work across national boundaries to improve human rights and to begin to erode the divisiveness of tribalism.

Brexit and Donald Trump currently cast a dark shadow; but as history shows the human will to work together to produce a better life for all is stronger than eruptions of isolationist nationalism and all other attempts to categorise and discriminate.

Maurice Vassie, Deighton, York