6 March 2020
Should we stop worrying about happiness?
Back in June at the launch of Danny Blanchflower’s book Not Working someone in the audience asked him how we could raise happiness levels. “It’s not that easy” he replied “since 2013 happiness levels have risen but so have unhappiness levels, some of the countries with the highest levels of happiness also have the highest rates of suicide.” An article on Unherd by Ashley Frawley this week would seem to agree: Happiness is a bogus metric.
Londoners, sort your finances
Matt Dronfield, Head of Debt Free London, outlines the steps you can take to get financially fit on a blog he published this week. Debt Free London is offering free face-to-face advice for those living or working in London.
Prime Minister and Scottish Conservative leader discuss making migration occupation list more 'flexible' for Scotland
On Thursday Conservative Home reported that Boris Johnson and Jackson Carlaw had discussed making an official shortage occupation list more "flexible" for Scotland following business concerns relating to the Conservative’s immigration blueprint: “Senior insiders told the Telegraph the Prime Minister and Scottish Tory leader held talks over reforming Scotland's list to make it more "agile and comprehensive", allowing more employers to use it to hire staff from abroad. Key immigration requirements, including a salary threshold, can be waived or watered down for those jobs included on the list... Speaking following the talks in London, Mr Carlaw said he was "hopeful and confident" a plan would be announced shortly that would address the concerns of key Scottish sectors." (Source: Daily Telegraph)
And finally, Coronavirus
We couldn’t do a roundup of the news this week without mentioning Covid-19. Greggs grabbed headlines this week for a story not related to its vegan sausage roll when they announced that they would continue to pay staff who self-isolate. In addition, the government has announced that statutory sick pay will now kick in from day one of sickness. All good news for people on low-to-middle incomes at this worrying time.
Thanks to the following for their tweets this week: @ConHome, @D_Blanchflower, @AshleyAFrawley, @MattDronfield
