The problem with the Protestant philosophy is that you can be happy anywhere - Jesus can be found in a warehouse prayer room in Chelmsford with plastic chairs and nylon carpet. Alain described Dubai - where a huge, new development is planned with 18 themed villages surrounded by five golf courses - as "a bit of a mess philosophically and visually".Why are the British so feeble about matters of taste - and why can't we get newly built houses that don't look like something out of Toytown? Will all the new estates in the South-east and the Thames Gateway promised us by Mr Prescott make us any happier? After watching this programme, I fear not.Last night, BBC2 took a different perspective on happiness with a new series presented by Mark Easton. In this series he mused about why we can't agree on how to live and what to build, and rightly pointed out that for many religions, architecture is believed to induce serenity and happiness. Alain de Botton, who specialises in what I call philosophy-lite, completed a three-part series on television last night entitled The Perfect Home. Alain is an engaging and self-effacing presenter, and that's part of his charm. He certainly wasn't coming up with a lot of controversial opinions about architecture, but he is very good at making us consider our everyday lives from an unexpected angle. Political opponents are trapped into supporting the proposals having made such a fuss in the first place. The hysteria produces a consensus over a mad set of policies in which if a foreigner steals some chewing gum he will be deported to Zimbabwe. More from Steve Richards.

Home Office ministers are told to take sweeping action and, as important, be seen to be taking action Draconian proposals are announced. The reaction to the small crisis arising from the release of foreign prisoners is as excessive as the original furore The sequence is familiar There is an apparent crisis Political opponents and parts of the media are up in arms Downing Street is in a state of despairing panic. Once more, the sledgehammer cracks the nut. We have all failed to help electors meaningfully participate in their democracy - it's just more shocking to see the BBC toss its brain into a blender. More from Johann Hari.

For example, John Humphries spent three minutes of an 11-minute interview questioning David Cameron about his bike, suggesting at great length that he buy a bigger basket to fit his papers into I don't mean to single out Today. But have you heard this issue discussed? Have you, as a voter, been helped to figure out whether Labour, Tory or Lib Dem councils will care better for your granny? The Today programme's interviews with representatives of the three main parties have served up cretinised brain-pulp. They are poised over the next few months to make decisions about whether to reduce the funding for these homes or not. (Or, to put it something other than cold council-speak, they are going to decide whether to slash a few pounds from council tax and leave more old people crying and caked in their own faeces for longer, or to increase taxes and try to provide decent care).

Local councils are responsible for the 400,000 elderly people living and dying in Britain's care homes. Another election campaign, another festival of apathy-inducing trivia. John Prescott's penis has loomed larger over this local election campaign than the issues that will affect people's lives for the next five years. The tall, handsome, patrician prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, is the kind of glittering, well-spoken clown who wears a pointed hat. The fratricidal numbers one and two in the French government are presented as circus clowns. There is a new satirical revue on the Paris stage called Villepy et Sarkozin. Better, too, and cheaper, we should have said, than sending them out there in goggles with paintballs, and certainly less damaging to environment and habitat..

Perhaps, we reason, enlightened employers are encouraging their hard-pressed operatives to take a brief break and place their efforts in perspective and context by observing the rhythm and cycle of life. Some will be uplifted by such interest in nature, others marvel at the irresistible communion of cyberspace, and others, less charmed, will wonder if these people have nothing better to do, and on whose time, exactly, they're doing it Down here, we prefer marvelling. The new offence of glorifying terrorism is now on the statute book. The introduction of compulsory ID cards is now law, and the proliferation of Asbos rumbles on, in pursuit of the so-called "respect" agenda.. Reactions to the news that 10 million people a day log on to a website to watch a bald-headed eagle in its nest will be mixed. How much further down this road will the Prime Minister and his Home Secretary be prepared to go? With the extended detention of terrorist suspects without charge, we have had the de facto suspension of habeas corpus.