Happy, are you? If you answered 'Yes', I have another question. Do you think you are as happy as those running Action for Happiness? This movement comes from Lord Richard Layard, a professor emeritus of the London School of Economics, with the goal to 'shift our culture away from selfish materialism towards more rewarding forms of social engagement'.
Action for Happiness will be registering as an independent company and applying for charitable status. Now, it may have an admirable goal, but can it be reached by a charity? Surely, to any favourable extent, such can only be achieved through good government? If successful in its application, I hope we won't soon see adverts of sad faces pleading for a monthly direct debit to make them laugh. That would denigrate the pleas of genuinely needful charities. How do you compare someone's happiness to the likes of disabilities, cancer, the homeless, or the wants of a starving child?
Whoever becomes the charity's director should be happily laughing all the way to the bank, that's for sure! Lord Layard is quoted as saying, "We would not be ruling out