Barometer | 1 August 2013

Art by the seaside

The Kent seaside resort of Herne Bay staged the parade of a urinal through the town to celebrate its connection with Marcel Duchamp, who spent a month there in 1913 and credited the place with rekindling his artistic career — a postcard to a friend declared: ‘I am not dead. I am in Herne Bay.’ Some other artists and their favoured English seaside resorts: — J.M.W. Turner frequently visited Margate for inspiration, after first being sent there as an 11-year-old boy. — John Constable lived in Brighton between 1824 and 1828. — Vincent van Gogh taught at a small boarding school in Ramsgate in 1876, from where he wrote to his brother Theo about helping the children to build sandcastles on the beach. — L.S. Lowry did not spend all his time in Salford. Berwick-upon-Tweed has established a Lowry trail which visits such sights as the holiday house which Lowry once nearly bought.

Wealth and happiness

The government’s new ‘life satisfaction index’ showed a small rise compared with last year, the first year that it was published. The Netherlands-based World Database of Happiness has been publishing an index for much longer. Is there any correlation between happiness and economic growth?

UK happiness (out of 10)
7.13	2004
7.12	2005
7.15	2006
7.15	2007
6.98	2008
7.38	2009
7.37	2010
7.15	2011
7.26	2012

UK economic growth (%)
1.9%	2004
4.4%	2005
1.8%	2006
3.7%	2007
-4.3%	2008
-2.5%	2009
1.8%	2010
1.1%	2011
0%	2012

World Database on Happiness/ONS (both year-end figures)

Cause for complaint

The government introduced new fees for people bringing cases to employment tribunals, to reduce the £74 million annual cost to taxpayers. What did employees complain most about in 2011/12?

Number of cases

Working hours	94,697
Unauthorised pay deductions	51,185
Unfair dismissal	46,326
Breach of contract	32,075
Equal pay	28,801
Redundancy pay	14,661

A total of 321,836 cases were brought, of which 186,331 were accepted. Source: Ministry of Justice