I had high hopes for Richard Layard's book on happiness, it being rare for someone in the political world to be arguing for the psychological perspective as he is. But I was disappointed.

With Freud, Jung, Maslow, Laing et al you get a sense of thinkers steeped in the complexity of the human psyche. They have contributed insight of immense value to the culture. Layard by comparison is facile. His premise is essentially Bentham's utilitarianism restated but not very well argued.

Certainly Layard is coming from a background in economics so perhaps his lightweight social-psychology is forgivable. But 'Happiness' is written at a time when the case for mental health is pressing and is in need of something with much more flare and originality. What we get here is little better than Oliver James.

To anyone believing in the value of emotional intelligence (surely the bedrock of a happy society) I suggest John MacMurray's 'Reason & Emotion' written in the 1930s. It is powerful and astonishingly prescient. MacMurray was a more worthy influence on Blair than I suspect Professor Layard could ever be on Gordon Brown.