Govt spending £2million to see if we are happy..hmmm

[GabbyLoggon]

This will be two million quid of taxpayers dosh, in a recession

well, I am rather unhappy about the 2 million being spent on that.

[GypsyMoth]

link??

[notpartofthelifeplan]

What are they playing at?

The majority of people probably aren't that happy at the moment. Do they need to conduct a survey to establish that?

David Cameron is living in cloud cuckoo land all this crap about happiness scales and big society when all we really want him to do is get on and sort the country out. If he is going to fleece me for every penny, I want that money spent on reducing the deficit and maintaining public services not finding out how happy my next door neighbour is on a scale of 1-10.

They are complete morons they really are.

[PelvicFloorTrauma]

I totally disapprove of £2m being spent like that but then also let's not forget how much money the last government wasted on advertising, etc.

[pallette]

I think if a happiness index could be developed then it could be useful to the Government but I don't see how it would be developed

[GabbyLoggon]

Oh yes, all governments waste money; but the
Coalition is slightly different.

Some people will do very badly out of Cams
policies others may do well.

But I suspect the people who do well are already doing well.

[GabbyLoggon]

Link todays news squire. Are you living in a monastry?

[GypsyMoth]

most people provide helpful links....

have not seen any media yet today

why would i be living in a monastry?

[MimsyRogers]

I think it's a good idea. Shouldn't the government care about the wellbeing of its citizens? It's easy and lazy to be cynical about it. It may be a difficult thing to measure, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. 2 million is absolutely nothing and if this establishes a measure of people's happiness which can actually help to form policy, then that's a good thing.

[BaroqinAroundTheChristmasTree]

No not in a monastery - unless you hadn't noticed it's common practice to link to a news article when talking about it.........

[AbsofCroissant]

Surely if we're not rioting and trying to hang the PM that's a sign that on some level, we're a bit happy? Anyways, aren't there yougov and all of these surveys ever few weeks (I'm on the panel) to measure these things, or similar things, so how does it help spaffing away £2mn on something that will ultimately achieve nothing. My colleague and I discussed this, and decided that a much better policy would be to spend £2mn on boxes of quality streets, hand them out to all the citizens of the UK, and then they'll know for sure that most of the citizens were happy for a couple of seconds while they ate their quality streets.

[notpartofthelifeplan]

Its not lazy to be cynical about it. Its completely pointless and will tell you nothing. We are all worried for our jobs, public services, future of our kids, the instability of the world etc. Why conduct a survey at this moment in time? Why not wait until we are a little further out of the hole?

[GabbyLoggon]

Yes, Tiffany, I am learning that some people dont take in the news. But it is hourly on the radio .

And if I did not take in the news I would not be able to write about it.

I do take care to be pretty accurate factually... and you know comps better than me..all daily papers have a todays news site.

( I am doing the 2nd world war next.) thats a joke All links in future should be abaht sausages.....Almost hilarity/nearly a charity..cheers

[witchwithallthetrimmings]

the link is
here if anyone wants it.

[UnquietDad]

Imagine if Labour had come up with this... which they could easily have done!!

The Conservative Opposition would have torn this apart...

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

they aren't spending 2 million to find out if we are happy.

They are spending 2 million to get a report that shows that we ARE happy, that we don't value having money and job security, that we are happy to be tightening our belts for the Greater Good.

Then they will come to us with this report and demand that we believe that we actually do feel this way and we'll stop complaining.

[AbsofCroissant]

Anyway, on a philosophical level, happiness can be/is fleeting (see my feeding the country quality streets idea above). A better thing to measure would be life contentment, and even on that, there are many things that (thankfully) the government has no control over. For e.g., having a loving partner, being satisfied within yourself etc. etc.

[emy72]

I am unhappy because my children will have to pay tens of thousands of pounds for an education I received for free (University).

I am unhappy because I will lose child benefit, which amounts to £240 a month, despite not being rich or wealthy;

I am unhappy because my utility bills are sky high whilst the energy companies are making unprecendented profits; and because everything is going up, including taxes, but quality of service is going down;

I am unhappy because the local secondary rebuilding programme has been scrapped, despite it falling completely apart;

I am unhappy because we were due a crossing on the busy road I have to cross every day, but due to government cuts', my (tory run and led) council says they can no longer afford it, hence endangering my children's life every day;

I could carry on - but I think that 2 million pounds is wasted on me as there is nothing they will do about the things I am unhappy about.

[Tikitikitembo]

I'm not just unhappy about this I am bloody angry they can piss off

[PanicMode]

I think that the survey will obviously show that we are all unhappy; they will 'bribe' us all with something just prior to an election, they'll redo the survey; we'll all vote that we're happier than we were when they did the first survey - Cameron can then say that we are all happier under his government - bingo.

[Tikitikitembo]

bribe us with what? There is going to have to be a bloody huge chocolate bar to make me say I am happy.

[ISNT]

I thought that there were already plenty of studies showing that we're all bloody miserable. There is a headline every 5 mins saying our children are all miserable, we're the most miserable people in the universe etc etc. Why not look at all the stuff that's already been done?

[PanicMode]

I know - I'm just being a wee bit cynical about the whole thing.

[HecateQueenOfWitches]

Bribe us with what?

cheese?

butter?

[ISNT]

here for eg

Do I get £2million quid?

[GypsyMoth]

thanks witch......