Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge. Polly Toynbee More Quotes by Polly Toynbee More Quotes From Polly Toynbee One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives. Polly Toynbee anxiety-disorderpainpeople Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust of women's bodies. Polly Toynbee islambodychristianity This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition. Polly Toynbee superstitionsislamreason There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious. Polly Toynbee teachingreligiouschildren The pens sharpen – Islamophobia! No such thing. Primitive Middle Eastern religions, and most others, are much the same – Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust for women's bodies. Polly Toynbee islambodychristianity Feminism is the most revolutionary idea there has ever been. Equality for women demands a change in the human psyche, more profound than anything Marx dreamed of. It means valuing parenthood as much as we value banking. Polly Toynbee womenmeanideas My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help. Polly Toynbee doctorsdyingmother Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs, it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually, just as we monitor money and GDP. Polly Toynbee gdpgovernmenthappiness Working lives are for the state to influence. Unemployment makes people unhappy. So does instability. Polly Toynbee unhappydoepeople Happiness is a real, objective phenomenon, scientifically verifiable. That means people and whole societies can now be measured over time and compared accurately with one another. Causes and cures for unhappiness can be quantified. Polly Toynbee realhappinessmean Inequality makes everyone unhappy, the poor most of all, and that is well within the remit of the state. More money gives less extra happiness the richer we get, yet we are addicted to earning and spending more every year. Polly Toynbee happinessgivingyears Crime is only the worst example, but it is a paradigm for other Labour policy disasters. No one tells the voters that crime is falling: let them stay scared senseless. Polly Toynbee votersexamplefall Nothing keeps people together like the exalted conviction that they alone are to be spared that eternal anguish of hell fire to which everyone else will be condemned. Polly Toynbee firetogetherpeople But how odd that in this heathen nation of empty pews, where churches' bare, ruined choirs are converted into luxury loft living, a Labour government - yes, a Labour government - is deliberately creating a huge expansion of faith schools. Polly Toynbee governmentfaithschool It is now possible to quantify people's levels of happiness pretty accurately by asking them, by observation, and by measuring electrical activity in the brain, in degrees from terrible pain to sublime joy. Polly Toynbee painhappinesspeople How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions? Polly Toynbee iconographyknowingart So what really works? Treatments in jail do some good, but it's mostly too late: finding a family and a job or just growing older make most prisoners eventually give up crime. Polly Toynbee jailgiving-upjobs The best care on earth cannot prevent us all dying in the end. Polly Toynbee caredyingearth People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly, longing for death. Polly Toynbee longingwantpeople In the polls, over 80% support the right to die and have done for the last 25 years. Even 80% of practising Catholics and Protestants support it, plus 76% of Church Times readers. Polly Toynbee supportcatholicyears
