The Telegraph: the ‘happiness professor’ lobbying for a wellbeing factor

In this feature, The Telegraph’s Economics Editor Russell Lynch talks to Paul about his views on the government’s approach to policymaking during the pandemic, and has called for an overhaul in the approach to deciding drastic measures like lockdowns.

As inequalities are widened by a year of shutdowns and the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the economic cost of lost schooling alone could be an astronomical £350bn over the lifetime of almost 9m pupils, Dolan has called for a new Wellbeing Commission in a bid to ensure that longer-term impacts are hardwired into Government decision-making. The plans have the backing of former Cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell and lockdown sceptics such as Conservative MP Steve Baker. Paul said: “The kind of perspectives that have been adopted in decision-making have been extraordinarily narrow. That has blinkered the approach to the big calls which impacted the lives of millions of people in the past year.” You can read the full article here.