The Public and Commercial Services Union organised a picnic lunch in Westminster yesterday in protest at the long hours that British workers often face.

"We're trying to make an effort to get out of the office. The tendency is to stay at your desk," said Jeremy Hughes, one of the picnic protesters and a worker at the nearby Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in Whitehall.

Echoing the less work and more play sentiments, Jonathon Porritt, the chairman of the government's Sustainable Development Commission, will tomorrow launch a campaign against economic growth.

"We can no longer depend on our growth-obsessed model of progress to generate the improvements in quality of life and personal wellbeing that people are now so hungry for," he will declare.