Sir, Fuelled by a burgeoning industry of therapeutic practitioners, the young people whose mental health problems are now a disability have experienced myriad interventions (“Poor mental health keeps young adults out of work”, Feb 26). From primary school they have been made aware of their mental health, encouraged to seek help for stress and anxiety, and taught “resilience building” and a vocabulary of emotional wellbeing. Five-year-olds are given plasticine or worry beads as soon as they feel “uncomfortable”, schools and universities offer therapy pets, mindfulness sessions, emotional wellbeing weeks, and train students as “mental health ambassadors”. The list is endless.
It is no surprise that serious problems overwhelm some young people to the point of disability. Yet social contagion and suggestibility are also overlooked factors. A growing number of children and young people actively seek a therapeutic diagnosis; some 15-year-olds press their parents to allow anti-depressants because their peers have them. Others have learnt to use mental health difficulties to gain an advantage; some define everyday apprehension as full-scale “panic attacks”, and others ask potential employers how many “mental health days” they are allowed.
We cannot dismiss all this as “snowflakery”. Nor should we simply increase the level of intervention and support or try to make learning less “stressful”. Instead, we need a root-and-branch rethink about how therapeutic education has contributed to a huge social problem.
Kathryn Ecclestone
Ret’d professor of education, Sheffield University; Martindale, Cumbria
Sir, Alice Thomson advises that “some stress is normal” and that we only grow and develop personal resilience by overcoming life’s slings and arrows (“Gen Z need life lessons more than therapy”, comment, Feb 28). I do not disagree but would counsel that reaching a consensus on this in the workplace is likely to be a challenge. Older generations seem to find younger colleagues’ willingness to prioritise their mental wellbeing somewhat bewildering.
Sarah McKenna
Barnet
Sir, I was immensely saddened by your report “Young, anxious and signed off sick” (Times2, Feb 27). I certainly think social media is a form of socially acceptable mental abuse, in that it fosters unrealistic expectations and plays up setbacks as disasters. It occurred to me that it could be helpful for some of the Gen Z-ers to read some good novels about the struggles of young people finding their way or not: Stan Barstow’s A Kind of Loving, Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar, John Braine’s Room at the Top, or many of the other coming-of-age novels I devoured in my youth. These show that early adult life misery is nothing new and that poor opportunities, bad relationships and boring jobs are part of the common currency for most of us.
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The generations who lived through the 20th century’s two world wars were damaged too, arguably more deeply, and yet had somehow to find a way to survive. Human beings are, after all, amazingly resilient.
Stephen Chappell
Malvern
Sir, Alexander Browder’s Thunderer “Help my generation to escape the social media vicious circle” (Feb 28) was splendid. If I had a 14-year-old grandchild who could express themselves so clearly and succinctly I would be extremely proud and have renewed hope for the future. As he writes, online platforms must be properly controlled and algorithms regulated. Tech companies should be subjected to much harsher penalties, ones that would really affect them. Young people should not be subjected to such online bullying and distress.
Irene Hinshelwood
Bishop’s Stortford, Herts
Science snubbed
Sir, Religion is not the only omission in the Media Bill’s obligations for public service broadcasters to provide programming (letter, Feb 27): science has also been snubbed. Science is shaping people’s lives, from understanding the world around us to tackling problems such as climate change and pandemics. It also creates jobs and drives growth.
Although there are no quotas for the amount of science coverage, its place in public service broadcasting has been enshrined in the Communications Act 2003. The Media Bill going through parliament abandons that important recognition and should be amended. In a world where science is at the heart of so much, we should expect public service broadcasters to help to inform, educate and entertain the public with good science programmes.
Sir Adrian Smith
President of the Royal Society
Defence weakness
Sir, Your report (Feb 28) that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin has reprimanded General Sir Patrick Sanders for making a speech warning that the army was at risk of becoming static and domestically focused raises important points. It is a fact that the British Army can no longer deploy a fully supported mechanised division abroad. It is a concern to serving and retired officers that our politicians are failing in their duty to ensure that our army has sufficient resources to deter our enemies, secure our borders, assist the civil power in an emergency, support our allies and to honour our treaty obligations. The US has made its concerns about our diminished defence capabilities clear several times but with no substantive response from our ministers. There is little hope that next week’s budget will do anything but reinforce the fact that our politicians are in denial in failing to acknowledge or meet the new challenges we and our allies face, and the manifest implications this has for the resourcing of our armed services.
Patrick Watson
Former Black Watch officer; London SW8
Post Office blame game over Horizon
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Sir, What an unedifying sight: well-paid executives blaming each other and making excuses in the Post Office Horizon scandal, when the problem is that they did not bother doing the homework for which they were being paid (“Badenoch has smeared me, says sacked Post Office chief”, Feb 28). Someone cunningly invented the phrase “Horizon is a robust system” and rather than look into why dozens of postmasters were being sacked they simply trotted out this phrase. These “fat cats” should be made to feel pain and anguish comparable to that which the postmasters have been feeling over the past 20 years.
Maeve Hamilton Hercod
Bath
Sir, Alan Bates is right to say that the Post Office culture will never change to support a network of small businesses properly (“Bates: Sell company to Amazon for £1”, Feb 28). But I am not sure that Amazon’s culture would be an improvement. Surely it would be better to give the Post Office to an organisation with a record of supporting networks of small independent businesses? The best contenders would be the family brewers, whose culture has always been centred on supporting their independent pub tenants. Combining the income streams of village pub and village post office could help both to survive. Shepherd Neame first floated this idea more than 30 years ago, when I was vice-chairman. If Bates is right, and the Post Office should be given away, then it is important to give it to the organisations best suited to running it, with the greatest benefit to rural communities.
Stuart Neame
Faversham, Kent
Health strategy
Sir, I agree with your leading article “Health Kick” (Feb 28) on the need for the state to get tougher in the fight against nicotine addiction and obesity. However, I do not understand the omission of alcohol from this list. With the number of deaths from alcohol-related liver disease rising and deaths from alcohol-specific causes at an all-time high, surely the case for government measures is equally as urgent? Having just attended the Royal College of General Practitioners’ conference on drugs and alcohol where the alarming statistics were presented and every clinician in the room shared stories of alcohol harm, I am puzzled by the silence on this matter. I suspect it is due to fears that policy in this area would be vote-losing.
Dr Rachel Turner
Overton, Hants
VIP tax hotline
Sir, It is not only VIPs who have a special line to contact HMRC: authorised tax agents also have a “priority number”, for the same reason that taxis can use bus lanes (“Taxman lets wealthy use VIP helpline to avoid long waits”, Feb 28). On Monday I listened to the recorded message saying “Your call is important to us” (while getting on with something else) for 44 minutes. I was then able to discover that HMRC has indeed received the letter I sent about a client on August 29, 2023, but as the section concerned has only reached May 2023, I should ring again in another three to four months’ time to find out their answer to my query. I am disappointed to learn from The Times that the public seem to get through to an adviser quicker than I do.
Mike Thexton
Richmond, Surrey
Sir, Nice to know that our high-earning ministers and civil servants can save precious minutes when calling their tax office. They would save more minutes (and possibly tax) by using the services and expertise of a practising accountant (who will be less likely to need to call HMRC anyway).
Peter Castle
Ret’d chartered accountant, Gillingham, Kent
Early doors
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Sir, Susie Goldsbrough thinks retired people like early curtains (“You’re already pricing us out of theatre, don’t time us out too”, Notebook, Feb 26). Not me. We elderly retired people like to eat before, not after, the play. Hence 7.30pm starts are perfect. Dinner at 6pm somewhere nice and quiet, done by 7pm, walk very slowly to the theatre, eventually find the bloody tickets on our phones, time for a trip to the lavatory, and settle into our seats. Just right.
Moira Yip
London SW6
Ungrateful episode
Sir, My “I said something wrong” moment (Giles Coren, Feb 27) occurred when I was about six: on Christmas morning I tore open the big present — a very nice train set. I immediately said: “I would rather have had a Scalextric.” I can still see the crestfallen look on both parents’ faces.
Jeff Cornacchia
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon
Parker’s fruitiness
Sir, Your editorial “Parker’s Piece” (Feb 26; letters, Feb 27-28) made me smile and reminded me of one of Dorothy Parker’s more famous asides. Attending a fête in an affluent New York suburb she spotted a barrel, next to which was a sign indicating “Ducking for apples”. With a sigh she pronounced: “There, but for a typographical error, is the story of my life.”
Christopher Goodwin
Leek, Staffs
Ultimate toastie
Sir, Both Tony Turnbull and the French gastronomes (reports, Feb 28) have omitted what must be a vital accompaniment to a cheese toastie: tomato ketchup. Preferably this delicacy should be toasted on top of an Aga but in these straitened times an air fryer will do the job admirably.
Sue Vincent
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Listen to the Letters Editor of The Times read out his pick of the week’s letters at 8.25am today on Times Radio
