Apologies to the good people of Finland, but as a young adult, I knew only one thing about them – that they drank, a lot. No amateurs in that department ourselves, and frequently called the sick man of Europe because of our heavy drinking culture, we Scots could indulge in some rare schadenfreude when we thought of the poor Finns, up there in the dark on the edge of the Arctic circle – they were in a worse state than us, bless them.

No one says “poor Finns” now. Not only do they drink less than us these days (doesn’t everyone), but they seem to do almost everything better than nearly everyone else. Ice hockey and saunas obviously, but also healthcare. Their education standards are higher. They have one of the world’s highest rates of employment among women, supported by high quality free or inexpensive early years education. Their public services work. They are famed for their cooperative spirit, as epitomised by their generous welfare state. As a consequence of all this, they are, er, happy.

Now there’s a word we don’t use very often in this column: happy. I could justify that omission on my part with reference to state of things – but that doesn’t explain the Finns. These are deeply uncertain times for them, living next door to a murderous tyrant, and yet they tell us that in spite of it all, they are pretty zen on the whole, thanks for asking. Whatever they’re having, we need some of it.

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There’s no escaping the happy Scandi effect, with Finland and the Scandinavian countries as a whole........

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