One of the things that struck me most about the reaction to the UNICEF report on children's happiness was the extent to which we encourage disdain towards children who aspire to low-skilled work and towards the adults who perform these important tasks.

On BBC2's Newsnight programme on 13 February, Jeremy Paxton positively spat out the statistic that 35.3% of British 15-year-olds aspire to low-skilled work. With opinion leaders encouraging this kind of attitiude it was hardly surprising to see children on the same programme laughing, yes laughing, at one of their classmates when he said he wanted to be a bus driver.

No wonder there's unhappiness. Though I, for one, would be unhappy to get on a bus without a driver.

In my view, we put too much emphasis on what we call 'raising' aspirations (the langauge helps perpetuate the problem) and not enough on valuing the aspirations of those whose priorities and/or values may be different from ours.

Whether or not Jade Goody and her cohort are guilty of racist bullying, I do believe that they are now, themselves, the victims of class and intellectual bullying, not least by politicians, the media and other opinion leaders. And the problem with intellectual bullies is that they sound so reasonable.

Professor Russell Foster, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, claims teenagers would get more out of school if they were allowed to start later in the day because the current start time is unnatural for them. He even suggests that it's 'cruel to impose a cultural pattern on teenagers that makes them underachieve'. Surely, if they started, say, a couple of hours later, got up a couple of hours later, ate their meals a couple hours later, set their clocks a couple of hours later etc. their body clocks would gradually adjust and they'd want to get up later still. Now there's an idea. Do that enough times and eventually their body clocks will coincide with everybody else's!

So, Tony Blair's idea of green leadership is taking environmental measures to offset his long haul holiday flights. All this means is that long haul holidays are no longer just the preserve of those rich enough to afford them; they are now the preserve of the even richer who can afford to offset the flight emissions.

What a sad start to 2007 that the one thing which motivates some people to campaign is the dehumanising desire to derive pleasure from an activity which causes suffering to animlas. If only the same powerfully literate people were motivated to campaign on issues which advanced humanity.

Executing Saddam is stooping to his level. It's like telling your children to stop bloody swearing. And to show it on film to prove that it happened is self-deception of the highest magnitude. A clear example of ASS (Acquired Stupidity Syndrome).

So the majority thinks that religion does more harm than good.

Surely it's people who do harm using religion as an excuse.

And if it weren't religion it would be something else …

Like communism e.g. Stalin

Or capitalism e.g. most of us in the rich world who use or allow capitalism to concentrate wealth in our hands at the expense of the majority in the rest of the world.

All the survey reveals is that the majority of us refuse to take responsibility for our own actions.

For years I've though international politics was pretty similar to playground politics: big kids beating up small kids; kids sulking and withdrawing diplomatic relations when other kids upset them; and so on. Now I've discovered a difference. When kids behave badly in the playground, they never claim they are driven by the greater good.

I certainly agree with the former UN Comissioner on Human Rights, Mary Robinson, when she says something must be done to stop the deliberate attacks on civilian women in the Darfur region of Sudan. To use rape as a cynical tactic in war is truly abhorent. But to criticise it on the grounds that it's gender-based warfare is surely diminishing the argument. Hasn't war always been gender-based? Throughout history hasn't it almost exclusivey been the men who are sent to the front?

Launching his pre-budget report, Chancellor, Gordon Brown, said he wanted Britain to be the most educated country in the world. And next day on the Today programme Digby Jones, head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) developed the theme, suggesting sanctions for businesses that didn't share his views on skills training.

Well, is it really a sign of a civilised society that everybody is under constant psychological pressure to adopt a certain definition of education? Just because the people who set the agenda gained so much of their identity from being educated in a particular way, they think everybody else should, too.

The message I repeatedly hear is that the less far you progress along a specific educational route, the less of a person you are. But my understanding is that it's status anxiety and social comparison which undermines humanity and wellbeing.

Perhaps the true measure of an educated society is one in which the further you progress along a conventional educational route, the greater your mental capacity to understand, value and reward the roles of those who've chosen a different route.

..... and another thing!!! I manage a highly skilled team who deliver a brilliant service to people experiencing or recovering from mental ill health. At the moment their time is being taken away from the job they do so well because they're being forced to do an NVQ in sucking eggs. I hope that makes our leaders feel more comfortable when they're desperately comparing us with other countries.

As a Christian who's lost his faith, I still support the Bishop of Litchfield. Maybe it's terms like 'Season's Greetings' or 'Best Wishes for the Holiday Season' or (wait for it) 'Winterval' that should be banned - in case they offend Christians.