SIR – As if the recession wasn’t enough, Bradford bus drivers threatened to ruin people’s plans with a strike in the run-up to Christmas but, thankfully, they got a pay rise above inflation and called it off.

Then Royal Mail bosses allegedly tried bullying our posties into walking faster during their rounds in an attempt, one assumes, to increase their workload and cut losses. Established companies like Woolworths and MFI, as well as many smaller businesses, went to the wall, shedding thousands of jobs.

Only huge unprecedented price reductions in pre-Christmas sales prevented many families from having to cancel their festivities altogether.

Now we’re told that 2009 is going to be a tough year for us all. Well, that is as maybe, but we have got through more challenging situations in the past and there is no reason to doubt we shall do so again, judging by the fortitude shown by this generation, not only at home but, more recently, in strife-torn countries abroad.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford