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A random sample of voters is unlikely, when accosted by a pollster, to second-guess George Osborne on cost/benefit analysis or draw up a Benthamite felicific calculus for £9bn.

The search for a "felicific calculus" is as old as Jeremy Bentham, but so are the objections to measuring it, such as discredited cost-benefit analysis.

The land of cotton, Spanish moss and magnolias has other distinctive and less felicific flora�and fauna�that can all but grab the unwary.

Ed Long's rare, felicific moment on center stage resulted from a decision of the Senate Select Committee on Standards and Conduct that it could see nothing wrong with his acceptance of $160,000 in legal fees since 1961.

We have to interpret all the facts in terms of pain or pleasure, and we shall have the materials for what has since been called a 'felicific calculus.'