Who'd want to live in the UK?

A "free market think tank" has ranked 104 countries world-wide in terms of various measures of "prosperity".
We're ranked 12th.
Not too bad, but we should be better.
"- Economic Fundamentals – Ranked 13th Weak terms of trade and domestic savings hinder an otherwise fundamentally robust UK economy.

- Entrepreneurship and Innovation – Ranked 2nd The UK benefits from a highly entrepreneurial and innovative economy

- Democratic Institutions – Ranked 11th Democratic institutions are strong, and the political regime stable in the UK

- Education – Ranked 21st British workers benefit from high levels of tertiary schooling, boosting labour productivity

- Health – Ranked 23rd High life expectancy, low infant mortality, and a strong health infrastructure characterise the health care system in the UK

- Safety and Security – Ranked 22nd The UK faces relatively few threats to its national security but people have concerns regarding theft

- Governance – Ranked 13th A high proportion of British citizens have confidence in governmental institutions

- Personal Freedom – Ranked 19th British society is characterised by a high degree of personal freedom and perceived tolerance of minority groups

- Social Capital – Ranked 11th British citizens enjoy strong support networks in family and friends"




You'd never guess, but my guess would be that the way to improve things is for the government to put lots of money into health, education and crime prevention. To be fair, a rating of 19th for personal freedom isn't too great.
We're above Germany, France and Spain

Broken Britain

The Sun are doing their bit on 'Broken Britain'.
"THE SUN'S focus on our fractured society today looks at an area where almost half the locals are jobless and where feral kids roam the streets"

I'd like to propose some easy answers, but easy doesn't tend to mean right.
While I have some qualified support for their analysis, The Sun coming out as champions of the poor rings very hollow.
And their promotion of Iain Duncan Smith is silly: "Tory poverty guru Iain Duncan Smith, 55, believes family breakdown is at the heart of Britain's troubles." His solution, well, not given. He's not quoted as having said anything.
So HOW exactly are we going to get families to stay together, bring up nice, lovely, well intigrated children? Less Big Government? Bollocks to that.
Not demonising people, not being afraid to put money into poor people where it's needed, better front line services, personal responsibility. Some will argue 'responsibility' and Big Government don't go together, i disagree. The others are Big Government solutions. It's a lack of government, not too much, which has failed these people.
When all else fails, the state should be there to look after it's own.