Don't worry , be happy
Be afraid of the happy brigade - Comment - Times Online - Jamie Whyte
RONALD REAGAN claimed that the scariest words in the English language are: “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.” Hyperbole, of course, but we got his point. And anyone who didn’t get it then ought to have got it by now. This Government is not merely incapable of devising policies that will help; it is incapable of even implementing them. Most of its “eye-catching initiatives” are quietly shelved after a few million in consulting fees reveal them as ill-conceived.
You might expect repeated failure by successive governments to have infused the political class with a degree of humility....
Then you have underestimated the chutzpah of politicians. They are like tradesmen who make a mess of your bathroom and then bid for the job of renovating your entire house. David Cameron is a human device for detecting the direction of the political wind. And he now claims that the Government should aim to increase not GDP (gross domestic product) but GWB (general wellbeing), or happiness, as those who do not talk in TLAs (three-letter acronyms) might put it.
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“I’m from the Government and I’m here to make you happy.” Now that is scary. ..
To have been born British is to have won first prize in the lottery of life. This is almost as true now as it was when Cecil Rhodes said it. But not because the British are or ever were the happiest people on earth. It is because, unlike those happy Nigerians, we are prosperous and free. Which means we have just about as much happiness as we want.
Jamie Whyte's full article makes a lot of sense - and as he is a New Zealander I just about forgive him for substituting the word British into Cecil Rhodes' quote - it was of course being born an Englishman that is the first prize.