AND FINALLY 652

Give enough chimpanzees typewriters, they say, and eventually they will come up with the works of Karl Marx (well, Shakespere at least). Well, give scientists enough money and they’ll eventually come up with the blindingly obvious.

A government ‘think tank’ called Foresight, using over 400 well paid researchers, has just published it’s ‘Mental Capital and Wellbeing’ report, which comes up with it’s own ‘5-a-day’ approach as to how people might go about becoming a bit more cheerful and productive.

Suggestions include revolutionary ideas such as ‘developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours will enrich your life’ and ‘Helping friends and strangers links your happiness to a wider community and is very rewarding’. The obviously-not-rocket-scientists go on to say that activities like fixing a bike or gardening, and hobbies like sports and dancing can all increase your feeling of wellbeing. Who’d’ve thunk it!

Still one useful issue the report highlights is the strong link between mental illness and debt. Half of people in Britain in debt have a mental disorder - compared with just 16% of the population at large. This leads us to wonder just how deranged all the corporate elite and the government have become considering how even more deeply under the ocean of debt they’ve sunk lately...