Reasons to be cheerful? Well, it made us laugh

Tom Harris, the Transport Minister nearly run out of town for asking: “Why is everybody so bloody miserable?” when we’ve never been wealthier, continues to look on the bright side.

He delivers a guide to national happiness on the Total Politics website. Step one is a viewing of the Glasgow MP’s favourite YouTube video. “A dog coming down a waterslide. Class,” he enthuses.

Jimmy Carr, king of the acerbic one-liner, is the minister’s comedian of choice. For music, the soul groover recommends “Motown. Particularly the Isley Brothers’ This Ol’ Heart of Mine”.

His ideal dinner party would be a lively affair attended by John Cleese, Bill Bryson and P.G. Wodehouse. There is a sentimental side to Mr Harris. The last film to make him cry was Deep Impact, the action thriller in which a massive comet threatens to destroy the Earth.

The minister also offers his general election prediction – a “Labour majority of between 80 and 100.” Now that really did make us laugh.

Don’t expect Joan Baez to recreate the Woodstock spirit when she sings at Glastonbury. “I don’t sing We Shall Overcome, because I’m not sure that we will,” the folk icon tells Word magazine. Dylan’s former squeeze had won cheap laughs telling George Bush jokes onstage. “But then I started rereading Gandhi and I remembered that nothing comes from being horrible,” she said.

Sir Richard Branson expanded on Nelson Mandela’s private views about the President of Zimbabwe at a celebrity dinner in honour of the South African. “He’s extremely angry with Robert Mugabe,” the bearded one told Virgin Radio. “Mugabe could have become a Mandela, but he chose to take another path and he’s [Mandela] mortified by what Mugabe has done to his country.”

The Face: Nelson Mandela

How fitting that Nelson Mandela should bow out of public life with an all-star concert in London today. No other public figure has exerted a similar impact over pop culture. Free Nelson Mandela, the Special AKA’s 1984 anthem, turned the freedom fighter into a cause célèbre for a generation. Amy Winehouse is expected to add her voice to the song in Hyde Park. When Mandela was released in 1990, he cited the support of artists such as Simple Minds, who performed at a 70th birthday tribute concert, as an inspiration while in jail. Gamely, Mandela called the Spice Girls his heroes when they made a pilgrimage to Johannesburg in 1997. But comedians have had their fun too – Ricky Gervais welcomed the man’s impeccable record since release: “And they say prison doesn’t work.”

Postscript

Because you wanted to know, Bono, sunglassed frontman with the rock band U2, has revealed that he voted “yes” in the recent Irish referendum on the Lisbon treaty. Speaking in France, where he was meeting President Sarkozy (naturellement), he said: “People just don’t get Europe.” While the majority of his fellow countrymen voted “no”, Bono said he still considered himself a rebel. “Choose your enemies carefully because they’ll define you,” he said. “Our enemies are things like our own indifference.” Not “being pretentious” then?

A new name is being considered for Cardiff airport and, rather like John Lennon airport in Liverpool or JFK in New York, a Welsh luminary is sought. Among the internationally recognisable names who are being considered are Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Catherine Zeta Jones. Zeta Jones could be an unpopular choice because she is from Swansea. If the people of Swansea are up for the vote then new pop sensation Duffy should be considered. She wins everything else.

Justin Timberlake tells ITV.com that he suffers from both obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder. “You try living with that, it’s complicated,” he says. It must be. Presumably his insatiable desire to tidy up is compounded by his being easily distracted.

Got a story to tell?
E-mail people@thetimes.co.uk

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Tower block death blaze ‘suspicious’
• Licence payers fund BBC chief's £8m pension
• Potter star falls victim to swine flu