May I share with you my earliest memory of a political row? It was with my mother, about the Queen - classic Freudian stuff, shrinks would say. I was eight, and refusing to watch the Queen's Christmas Day broadcast.

He included plenty of references of specific points of anxiety relating to the training and the day itself. And he put in a few specific trigger words or phrases that he urged me to say to myself whenever I felt I was weakening or panicking. The one that lodged was 'better, faster, stronger.

There has been a shift to what may be defined as a culture of negativity which goes well beyond coverage of politics.

The thing about politicians in Britain is that they are out there, you can lobby them, get close to them, there are loads of ways you can protest against them, and booing is a pretty weak way of doing it.

By asking the question 'Am I happy?,' and via the answer setting out what I mean by happiness, there is a political route that can be taken, by asking another question - 'Can politics deliver happiness, and should it try?'

The earliest you can play Christmas music is on Thanksgiving.