IT was meant to be the big policy idea of the 21st Century, but now ridicule awaits any politician who suggests it.

Not so long ago, the notion that the Government should concentrate on making us happier – rather than wealthier – was gaining ground fast. After all, a welter of evidence has suggested our growing material riches are making us more miserable, not more contented.

Professor Richard Layard, a Labour peer and don at the London School of Economics, convinced some ministers it was now possible to measure happiness. As a result, some schools focus on the “well-being” of their children, following something called the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme.

The Office for National Statistics was said to be developing a measurement of well-being to rival GDP per head – as was the government of France.

Nearly 60 MPs – including Phil Willis (Harrogate and Knaresborough), Bill Etherington (Sunderland North) and Alan Beith (Berwickupon- Tweed) – signed a Commons motion urging Gordon Brown to copy the French.

Could it be RIP GDP, hello “wellbeing index”? Of course not, not least because then came the economic crash. More than ever, we wanted the Government to save our jobs, homes and livelihoods – not put smiles on our faces. Even David Cameron – who once urged us to “let sunshine win the day” – has ditched the positive vibe for a sombre public image he thinks is more befitting of the times.

And yet... Once the recession is over, can we really expect to go back to lives of high-spending and keeping up with the Jones’s?

Catch ministers in a quiet corridor and, in hushed tones, they will tell you the answer is no. That the slump is the start of a more austere age. Even when the economy bounces back, there will be a huge hangover of debt to be repaid, which means fewer foreign holidays and new cars.

The Government is still running pilot projects – in South Tyneside, Manchester and Hertfordshire – to find ways of cheering us up.

So perhaps a “well-being index” could still be the next big policy idea – once we are out of our current misery.

However, I’m not sure about Professor’s Layard’s calculation of the level above which a higher income makes us less happy. Gloom kicks in above about £14,000, he reckons.

MPs roared with laughter yesterday when it was suggested that Richmond MP William Hague’s website proclaims him to be “Leader of the Conservative Party”.

And, sure enough, a quick Google pulls up www.williamhague.org.uk which lists him doing a job he quit seven-and-a half years ago after his crushing General Election defeat.

Embarrassing? No. The Conservatives insist it was never Mr Hague’s website, but was set up by a joker. In fact, perhaps uniquely among MPs in late 2008, he does not appear to have a website.

JUST how stupid is George Bush? After cowering when an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at him, he remarked: “I don’t know what his beef is.”

This may be a wild punt, but could “his beef” possibly be that his country was invaded illegally and hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered?

Just 34 more days of the hapless Bush – now there’s something to make us all happier.