As chief executive of the charity that hosts Mental Health Awareness Week, I agree with the central thrust of Eva Wiseman’s argument that the increased profile of mental health must lead to change (“It’s good to talk about mental health. But is it enough?” Magazine).
This change must be personal as well as political. The central message of the week is that we all have mental health and there are steps we can all take to understand and protect it. Undoubtedly, this message is now having greater resonance than ever. On the political front, we have in the past fortnight seen all the major parties talk about mental health. The fact that more of us are talking about our mental health has played an important part in this.
The battle has not been won, but we are making progress. This is not the time to stop talking about mental health, but the time to talk and call for action. The Mental Health Foundation’s five-point plan for the next government does just that.
Jenny Edwards
Chief executive, the Mental Health Foundation, London SE1
The price of sovereignty
Jeremy Hosking is spending money to help pro-Leave candidates get elected to represent pro-Leave voting constituencies (“Two tribes go to war for the seats that may fix the balance of power”, News). If he were really concerned that the UK had sovereignty, as expressed democratically through its parliament, he would, logically, also be supporting pro-Remain candidates in constituencies that largely voted to Remain. What he is actually doing is trying to impose his political will on the country – which is not the same as sovereignty – and he is attempting to buy it because he can afford to do so.
Gerard Bell
London SE17
Pre-teens come of age
Jenny Valentine’s positive piece on adolescence (“Dear adolescents, don’t grow up and get serious”, Comment) gives us a welcome insider’s view, but lacks the perspective of child development. While teenagers, understandably, preoccupy us, they don’t arrive out of nowhere. The pre-teens (eight- to 12-year-olds) is also a critical and influential phase, as both advertisers and mental health practitioners realise.
Children experience, define and redefine themselves throughout their childhood. Adolescents certainly question who they are, often defining themselves by the negative – “I am no longer like this” or “I don’t want to be like them”. As they peel off their outer layers they can leave themselves dangerously exposed. The key is how they reconstruct themselves and that depends largely on their pre-teen experiences. That’s the seed pearl around which either a secure and creative adult identity grows or a vulnerable one prone to mental ill health.
Politicians who want to build a confident future and stem the waste caused by disabling mental ill health should now consider the world of the pre-teen and the challenges they face.
Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer
London NW11
Inequality in women’s football
You are right to celebrate Manchester City Women’s FA cup victory (“Lloyd kills off challenge to provoke City swagger”, Sport, last week). However, the “swagger” disguises a fundamental flaw in the funding of the Women’s Super League: there is a cap on how much revenue can be spent on players.
The WSL is becoming a clone of men’s professional football, where there is a premier league of the wealthy few and a league of the relatively poor. When you have a semi-professional league in which some play full-time, while others train around their “real” jobs, there is little prospect of improving quality and competitiveness.
John Bird
Bristol
The gall of ex-NHS mandarin
The NHS has served as a political football over the years and perhaps in the spirit of this David Nicholson has played a game of two halves (“Ex-NHS chief urges 1p tax rise to save health service”, online).
As NHS chief executive, he posed the so-called Nicholson challenge with a goal of £20bn of efficiency savings despite a widespread view from clinicians and the reputable King’s Fund that this was untenable in maintaining high-quality care. Indeed, in 2012 the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the NHS would need another £20bn by 2020.
Having demitted in 2014, with vast personal remuneration and a knighthood, he refers to the NHS as “woefully underfunded”! Is it time to ask again whether the NHS should be so in thrall to party politics and mandarins?
Dr John Trounce
Hove
Tottenham fan’s own goal
I enjoyed most of your feature on the final game at Tottenham Hotspur’s ground (Goodbye White Hart Lane, an iconic stadium remembered, Sport), but I have to draw attention to one glaring error.
I loved Jimmy Greaves as much as any supporter, but he was not part of the Double-winning team, as suggested by Paul Bateman. No, Spurs number 10 for the whole 1960-61 season was Les Allen.
The error is the more notable because in the game that Mr Bateman picked out, the 13-2 win against Crewe Alexandra, Les Allen scored five goals.
John Crouch
Harlow
