We'd all like to live in a world where most of the people are happy most of the time. It would be a nice world, full of cheerful optimism and generous spirits. I know it sounds like a utopian dream but just try and imagine for a moment what the world would be like if all of the unhelpful negative people you met in your daily life were optimistic, friendly and helpful... Ah, I can almost hear the birds singing!

I've just been reading a book called "Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years" by Jared M Diamond and it's really made me think that happiness has got to be the way forward for the human race.

Just watching panorama about devious ne'er-do-wells screwing money out of the property market and it occurred to me that these people are actively engaged in wrecking society but they don't care because they think it won't affect them. Take the money and run, possibly to Panama. But we're all living in the world together and if civilization breaks down then it breaks down for everybody.