Horticulturists can contribute to the government's consultation on measuring the national well-being.
Everyone can have their say - perhaps Landscape Juice members would like to speak out about the good effect of plants on our productivity and happiness?
The idea of a way to measure the quality of life is not a new one, Tony Blair considered the idea but abandoned it. In a BBC interview David Cameron said that he wants to 'get a general picture of whether life is improving '.
According to the BBC, Jill Matheson, statistician, and chief of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is hoping to build a survey upon 'what people tell us matters most'.
The chance to do this is through the ONS public consultation open until the 15th April 2011.
What areas do matter most, and which contribute to a sense of well-being? The ONS website prompts with a list that includes health, education, crime, social relations and making contributions to policies, as well as job and income factors.
Some unsurprisingly, consider the well-being index as insincere. Len McCluskey the new leader of the trade union Unite, issued a statement about the 'so-called happiness index'.
McCluskey pointed out that in the context of so many cut-backs, 'all the essential elements which make people happy and secure are fair game for the chop...'
McCluskey said that well-being factors are 'the need of a secure job, a healthy family, a good and affordable education and a roof over our heads'.
Sandwiched between the spending review and the royal wedding, the well-being index is attracting a lot of media attention.
The traditional economic standard, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been joined by others. The United Nations Human Development Index, (HDI), includes measures of the impact of economic policies on life.
In the November 2010 HDI report the UK was twenty sixth in the category of developed countries. The report said:
“People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups.”
To make sure people push the well-being index forward, what categories do Landscape Juice members think should be taken into account?
Do job, education and family cover what members think matter most? Are there other areas, such as the amount of green spaces or the wildlife and environment?
How important for example is the transforming effect of plants and the cultivation of gardens to a sense of well-being?
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