North-East has plenty to smile about

Mar 7 2003 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

Have you got a red nose yet? The Comic Relief one, of course, not the sort that comes as a result of good living.

The campaign becomes increasingly ingenious in its attempts to engage us all in giving time and money to the charity.

One of its new awareness raising stunts this year was to find out which is the smiliest city in the UK.

Apparently Bristol's smiles are better than the rest, according to Comic Relief. This seems to contradict the findings of a Cadbury survey in January, which established the North-East as the happiest region.

One-third of local people who took part said they were happy all the time.

However, the two surveys contrast the difference between a quick smile and a genuine contentment with life. A smile comes and goes in an instant, unlike the reasons for happiness put forward by people from the North-East.

Newcastle has also scored highly as the best place to work in recent years. Compared to other cities, it is less stressful and there's less traffic.

New, high quality office developments and the relatively happy state of mind of most working colleagues provide excellent working conditions.

All in all, we're pretty content with our lot. The city and the region is attractive and lively and able to win national and international awards.

However, beneath the laid-back atmosphere has been a huge amount of work to ensure we are worker, shopper and tourist-friendly.

The ways in which public and private sector are working together to drive forward the attributes of the region to attract investment and Capital of Culture status are very positive.

Creating the framework to motivate people who live and work here has been a long-term investment, now reaping its rewards.

The benefits of living and working in the North East should have us beaming more broadly than the Bristolians.

A Bristol comedian's explanation of the award was that although they do smile in the city "sometimes it's not really a smile - we are just a little bit constipated".

Perhaps it's just as well we don't do smiles to order to satisfy a Red Nose census.

* Nicholas Craig is a partner at Watson Burton law firm.