![]() ![]() ![]() When not measuring happiness, a different set of government statistics informs us that one in four girls are suffering from clinical depression by the age of 14, another reveals that 50 per cent of young women between 11 and 18 experience on-line bullying, undermining their self-confidence, while we also learn that suicides are rapidly rising among men, especially young men – closely correlated with unemployment and burgeoning inequality. Yet, no-one can deny that their gloom echoes the ongoing fears and miseries found within this very same population issuing from numerous other government statistics. True, I’m a Londoner, and perhaps even the tens of thousands I encounter in the virtual world are a select bunch of cosmopolitan folk. 1 Are they serious? I keep my ear to the ground, and everywhere I hear only the gnashing of teeth over the Brexit vote. As if wanting to contribute, only last month – indeed on the very day my book Radical Happiness: Moments of Collective Joy was launched – those who have been monitoring our happiness for two decades now reported that people are generally slightly cheerier since the Brexit result, at least in England. The festive season returns again, with its mandatory merrymaking, whatever our personal vicissitudes. ![]()
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