The best care on earth cannot prevent us all dying in the end.

In the polls, over 80% support the right to die and have done for the last 25 years. Even 80% of practising Catholics and Protestants support it, plus 76% of Church Times readers.

Working lives are for the state to influence. Unemployment makes people unhappy. So does instability.

But instead of standing up for reason, our government is handing education over to the world of faith.

My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help.

There is all the difference in the world between teaching children about religion and handing them over to be taught by the religious.

Is anyone serious about the politics of happiness? David Cameron dipped a toe in the water, using the word lightly, but denying the hard policies it implies. Labour shies away from it, but should take up the challenge.