Mr Prescott was deprived of his department as a punishment, in effect, for having an affair with his diary secretary. Then he was forced to give up his state-owned country house because he chose the wrong form of team-building at the wrong time of day (croquet, 4pm on a Thursday). Nine years ago, in the blissful dawn of New Labour, he played a creditable role in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that marked an important stage in a global response to climate change. Since then, he has sometimes performed a useful political function in helping to overcome resistance from the Labour Party's conservative wing to such desirable reforms as tuition fees. He was an unimpressive departmental minister, however, with no achievements to his name at Transport, Local Government and the Regions.

An estimated 10 per cent of children in any school experience serious depression, such as going through prolonged bouts of despair and even harbouring suicidal thoughts.. This newspaper has long ceased to see the point of John Prescott. Even in an area with one of the country's highest teenage pregnancy rates, high levels of drug abuse, family break-up and children in care, the statistic shocks Yet the situation in South Tyneside is far from unique. On South Tyneside, where the first optimism programme will take place next year in secondary schools, nearly a third of teenagers say they have experienced depression. Special behavioural techniques imported from the US will be used from September next year in an attempt to make children more resilient in the face of the pressures of 21st century living..

His solution was to become a good listener because he thought it would make him more popular with girls.. Lessons in happiness are to be introduced for 11-year-olds in state schools to combat a huge rise in depression, self-harm and anti-social behaviour among young people. The 63-year-old academic, a Princeton graduate with more than 40 years' experience in academic research, now works in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite his distinguished academic career, the psychologist admits that being a plump, Jewish 13-year-old made him an outsider at his elite school. This was not an accurate description of the BBC coverage in general, and in terms of England coverage what did Campbell expect? Sport is not about balance.Peter Cole is professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield. While traditional fund managers struggle to get their clients to pay more than a small fraction of 1 per cent annual management charge, these wizards charge 2 per cent plus a hefty 20 per cent performance fee Some charge even more. Mr Tudor Jones reportedly rakes in 4 per cent per annum, and Mr Cohen a 50 per cent performance fee.The effects of this transfer of wealth are proving dramatic.

As the guru of positive thinking, Professor Martin E P Seligman is one of the most influential psychologists of his generation. The disparity of incomes in the US is at its highest since the gilded age between 1900 and 1910. The top 1 per cent now controls nearly 20 per cent of national income. But below them are hundreds, maybe thousands, earning in excess of $10m a year.The crucial dynamic in these hyper-inflated incomes is the extraordinary repricing of their services that hedge fund managers have achieved.

At the top of the Greenwich tree are the likes of Eddie Lampert (estimated worth $3.5bn, or £1.9bn), Steve Cohen ($2.5bn) and Paul Tudor Jones ($2bn). Nearly 70 per cent of Greenwich office space is now occupied by hedge fund managers, with rents rising way beyond midtown Manhattan prices.The fortunes made here are colossal. Greenwich is their capital.It is estimated that over 10 per cent of the global industry is now controlled from this once-sleepy commuter town. New York trains reverse the traditional traffic, with young city slickers who choose to live in Manhattan crowding the outbound trains each morning. No wonder, when we park, my host feels safe enough to leave all the windows open in his brand-new Lexus. After the usual Perrier and salad business lunch we pause at the windows of the latest village shop, Tiffany's. Welcome to Greenwich, Connecticut - hedge fund wonderland. In the past 20 years, the hedge fund high rollers - with their various complex strategies, their leverage and their short selling of stocks - have become the dominant force in nearly every market.