CASTING about desperately for signs of the vote-winning "feel-good" factor's return, the government's spin-doctors must, it seems, look not for a rise in house prices or for "Sold" signs on estate agents' boards, but at the queues on the golf tees.

For the upswing in golf club membership is being put forward as a measure of economic confidence - more precisely, of the consumers' willingness to spend again.

So, too, we are told, are the record numbers of people going to the cinema and of people eating out - to the extent that new restaurants are opening at such a rate that there are not enough trained chefs to go round.

Indeed, if the government could tap this mood, it might see its dismal performances in the opinion poll ratings start to improve as, perhaps, they might have done if more heed was paid to its reminders that inflation is low, mortgage and interest rates are at rock bottom, crime and unemployment are falling and house sales and prices are starting to pick up.

But, if all that's so, why should "feel good " remain so elusive?

Could it be that everyone has got so fed up of waiting for its return that they've gone for a game of golf or out to the flicks or a meal in order to forget their cares?

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