LAZINESS is the key to a longer life. In that case, thank goodness for power cuts. Forget your new year resolutions - if you haven't already - to work harder and exercise more. According to a new book, all this unnecessary exercising and hard work just uses up our limited resources of life energy and wears it out sooner. Far better to take life at a gentler pace. Sometimes we just have to sit and do nothing.

That's what the lack of electricity forced me to do at the weekend.

Admittedly, we were some of the lucky ones. With a real fire and a gas hob we don't go cold or hungry. There were no flood waters and the only uprooted tree was one I wanted to get rid of anyway. The power cut was an inconvenience rather than a major problem.

But it meant we couldn't work...

No electricity meant no computers, meant no writing, no research, not even any dealing with correspondence as 90 per cent comes electronically these days.

And - oh dear, what a pity, how sad - I couldn't do the washing, ironing or Hoovering either. So in daylight we sat by the fire and read the papers.

And when the light got too dim we stopped reading. Husband dozed and I just sat.

It was blissful. Curled up in front of a log fire, the room lit only by the flicker of flames and candles, I toasted my toes and let my thoughts wander, just let my mind play. It was incredibly relaxing.

The author of the new book on laziness, Dr Michaela Axt-Gadermann, says laziness is important for a healthy immune system because special immune cells are stronger in times of relaxation. Idleness is apparently good for the brain too, as too much stress leads to premature senility.

We seem to have lost the knack of doing nothing productively. We're either tearing about doing five things at once or if we relax, it's with a book - using the brain, however pathetically - or slumped in front of the television, where even the feeblest of programmes stimulates our senses to some extent, if only jaw-dropping disbelief at Germaine Greer and John McCririck on Celebrity Big Brother.

It's got to the stage where we always have to justify any time of inactivity. Even stretched out on a sun lounger on a beach, we have a book with us, as though to pretend we're not utterly idle. And surely one of the reasons for the growth in alternative remedies - aromatherapy, acupuncture, reiki - is that, if nothing else, they give you an excuse to lie down for an hour or so.

Previous generations - who lived much more stressful lives than we do, with apparently far greater equanimity - understood the need for relaxation, thinking even books to be too dangerously stimulating when relaxation was needed.

It's an approach we need to reclaim. It could keep us sane and help us live longer. As the old cartoon says: " Sometimes I sit and do nothing, other times, I just sit..."

Carry on. It could be good for you.

NO, I don't think Tony Blair should have dashed back from holiday. In the age of video phones, e-mails and instant communication, what could he have done at home that he couldn't do in Egypt - apart from make more sickly speeches? For which relief, much thanks.

He needed a holiday for his own health and temper. But he is also a family man. Must be rotten having a dad who's prime minister. You'd think the kids deserved a bit of his attention and company at Christmas at least.

And we managed very nicely without him - millions raised in days, relief teams and volunteers doing a great job, all without Tony telling us what to do. We are, after all, a nation of grown-ups, quite capable of thinking for ourselves.

Maybe we should send him on another holiday...

www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/news/ griffiths.html