Working lives are for the state to influence. Unemployment makes people unhappy. So does instability. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
Happiness is a real, objective phenomenon, scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it’s mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
My Lords temporal, today is the day to rise up against the regiment of Lords spiritual and proclaim the values of enlightenment, compassion and common sense. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
Crime is only the worst example, but it is a paradigm for other Labour policy disasters. No one tells the voters that crime is falling: let them stay scared senseless. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world’s main religions? Polly Toynbee Read Quote
But how odd that in this heathen nation of empty pews, where churches’ bare, ruined choirs are converted into luxury loft living, a Labour government – yes, a Labour government – is deliberately creating a huge expansion of faith schools. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs, it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually, just as we monitor money and GDP. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives. Polly Toynbee Read Quote
