Your article shows how depression will be treated worldwide in the future (“A Weight of Our Minds: How Therapy Became Physical to Strengthen Mental Health”, News). Exercise as a treatment for depression has five massive advantages: it’s free; it can be used in combination with other treatments; keep the benefits; it confers other health benefits; and it empowers the individual to take positive action to combat depression.
The underlying science has little to do with the release of endorphins: exercise has been shown to work more permanently by stimulating neuroplasticity (ie new circuits) in key parts of the brain that sustain mood, emotion and executive functioning. It works in the same way as all other treatments for depression, from placebo to talk therapy to medication to ECT, and is synergistic when combined with any of these. Those with seasonal affective disorder should start an exercise program when the clocks go back. Exercise really is the new antidepressant.
Dr Jeremy Seymour
Sheffield
It is gratifying to see that the link between mind and body is being rediscovered. Our heads are parts of our bodies, so mental health is continuous with physical well-being. We are not just brains. We also have bodies. And souls.
Professor Brendan Kelly
Trinity College Dublin
Give Starmer his due
I was quite shocked to see such a devastating claim on the front page of the Observer (“Starmer does not have a clear sense of purpose, says ex-policy chief”, News). Yes, there are aspects of policy where I would have been happier to see more focused direction, but Starmer has learned to be more measured in approach and he has many hurdles to negotiate to get Labor back to power.
It was only in the penultimate paragraph that the words “honest”, “decent” and “principle” appeared. These are the qualities I would look for before any other, especially after what we have been subjected to since 2010.
Jacqueline Simpson
Garforth, Leeds
Don’t ignore children’s rights
I am disappointed that you would choose a letter that has no input from educators or trans students (“Hold schools accountable on gender“). I am disappointed that the letter refers to the interim Cass review, which says on page 47 that it did not examine the important role of schools. I am disappointed that this letter says girls are forced to use the same toilets as boys. I am happy to invite these clinicians to my school to talk about what we have done for our LGBTQ+ students and why. Once again, the rights of the child are being ignored and the experience of all LGBTQ+ students is being ignored.
Rebecca Knights
London SE15
Reform capital gains tax
Your leading article “Tory tax plans are a handout for the rich” failed to realize that it is not the rich who pay inheritance tax, but rather the unprepared. It is also clear why it is unpopular with people who want to leave a legacy for their families. The answer is simple but not obvious: reform capital gains tax so that it is charged at the same rates as income tax (including National Insurance) and falls on residential property. This means that if I leave my house to my daughter in my will and she lives there with her family, there is no tax. However, if she sells the property, she will have to pay CGT on the profit. We are told that there is “no money left” to pay for the investment this country desperately needs, but the Unearned Wealth Tax will enable Labor to fill the coffers and also gain a foothold against the Tories sign by abolishing this unpopular inheritance tax.
Christopher Bowser
Holmer Green, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Green Paris? It’s a laugh
As a born and bred Parisienne, I was perplexed by the idyllic description of Paris as supposedly transformed by the mayor (“Let the green Games begin…”, New Review).
Non-stop roadworks, atrocious concrete blocks everywhere to create traffic-jam-generating cycle lanes, dirty streets and unsafe metro rides are more akin to reality for Parisians who can no longer cycle or spend their time jogging along the Seine.
It would be interesting to ask the many tourists who have been attacked near the Trocadero or around the cistern of the Champs de Mars while admiring the Eiffel Tower, whether they feel the City of Light is such a good destination for a romantic holiday. Those of us who have visited London recently remember feeling much safer on the tube than the Underground. Here’s a thought to boost entente cordiale: how about London hosting the next Olympics? Surely your former prime minister can think of another trick.
Dr. Marie-Elisabeth Deroche-Miles
Paris
How to beat the doom loop
Will Hutton points to low investment in businesses as the biggest problem (“Britain is caught in a doom loop: the system is crippled against growth”, Comment). He wants a weakening of protective legislation on pension funds so they make riskier stock market investments, at the cost of less secure pensions for most workers. He identifies the right problem but has the wrong cure.
Higher investment will be good for business, good for wealth holders and good for the well-paid fund managers and bankers who serve them. A small amount can filter down to highly skilled workers in a position to demand extra. The incomes of the rest will remain stagnant because most workers are in no position to raise wages. All the evidence from the last dismal decade is that the share of GDP growth (the surplus from business) going to workers has shrunk, while that to capital has risen.
We need stronger unions, laws to guarantee the right to strike, worker representatives with voting power on boards and serious government investment. It would be easy to finance if we taxed the dividends of the rich at the same rate as the income of the rest of us. Too much policymaking is based on the assumption that what is good for wealth holders is good for the rest of us. It is not.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby
University of Kent, Canterbury
Beat history’s drum
As a retired history lecturer I must congratulate Kenan Malik for an excellent explanation of Arno Mayer’s thesis on The persistence of the old regime (“The conflict between history and memory lies at the heart of today’s cultural divides”, Comment). Importantly, he emphasized the relevance of Mayer’s ideas to modern political debates. Most important is the issue of constructed memory in popular culture and political discourse, often cited as history.
Finally someone is beating the drum for academic history, something my more distinguished contemporaries seem to have failed to do. History itself has been given a bad name in recent years. For example, one would assume that issues of slavery and empire were taught uncritically when debates raged for many years. Simplistic generalizations of evil and goodness are more prominent in much public history and should be challenged.
Dr Trevor Hopper
Lewes, East Sussex
We all need better role models
Does it look French? I am ashamed of this comment which I find more of a ‘low blow’ to the French than quality journalism.
Admiration for one’s talent can lead to a bias in favor of the defense, but this bias is not limited to the French (“Invoking genius to defend ‘dark stars’ like Gérard Depardieu seems awfully French – and it is”, Comment). Unfortunately, we have many examples from different countries.
Celebrities can gain hero status and it can be difficult to associate our heroes with “bad performances”. However, we, as a society as a whole, need better role models. Let’s have a conversation about what makes someone worthy of hero status and good role models. Referring to the French in this way does not include a discussion about who inspires us and why. And it certainly does nothing to further discussions about misogyny in the film world, in any country, not just in France.
Beth Dawson
Paris, France
