Downing Street policy analysts reckon that the UK electorate is presently behaving like a grumpy teenager: wanting responsibility, but not ready to handle it. They tend to view any attempts by the state to cajole or force them to do things as unwelcome authority, with the newspapers further fostering the discontent. The economy is doing fine, but the disgruntled population still does not get any happier. The original article by Patrick Wintour in The Guardian is here. This links into the problems pointed out by Richard Layard in his excellent book “Happiness: Lessons from a new science” – at Amazon here, and a column by Polly Toynbee about it here. The question then is: what are we supposed to do about this? How can we persuade the population to understand that they cannot have it all, and in the end the state is supposed to be there for the good of the people?