The UK is up to its neck in debt, but here’s the thing: we just don’t care.

Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher & Walton, has an interesting piece in this morning's Telegraph saying we should be careful not to blame Brussels for our own, home made problems, and in particular excessive indebtedness. Yet a survey by the Office for National Statistics, published this morning, finds that to the extent that we are up to our necks in debt, it really doesn't bother us very much. As is well known, UK households have one of the highest levels of indebtedness relative to income anywhere in the world. Yet the vast majority of this debt relates to mortgages on property, which actually, when you think about it, is only a form of front end loaded rental, only you get to own the property at the end of it.

 Don’t let your imaginary friends lead you astray

A few weeks back, as you'll probably recall, the media became briefly aroused by a study examining what makes people satisfied, or not, with their sex lives. It isn't just a matter of how much sex you're having, apparently; it's also a question of having more than other people. (Quality wasn't considered.) Predictably, the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" was deployed, as was that stock photograph of four feet poking out of a bed. So far, so unsurprising. We measure our wealth in comparison to others. Why not sex, too?