Of course, lots of people are going to run off to Dubai (#47) or Singapore (#23 and #64 for personal freedom) if we don’t mollycoddle them.

The Daily Mail writes on a daily basis about a UK where business is stifled by regulation, the economy is burdened by a bloated public sector, we are run by a corrupt politicial elite, terrorists and violent criminals menace the law abiding public, the traditional family is under assault, ancient freedoms have been taken away, our universities teach ‘mickey mouse degrees’ and our health service is inefficient.

The research suggests that every single one of these are right-wing myths.

1. Much of this is relative and about the beliefs of respondents to polls;

2. The research doesn’t appear to mention our ‘ancient freedoms’.

Just look at those Scandinavian countries clustered at the top. And check out their “personal freedom” rankings. Interesting.

The Mail view could still be correct – it’s just that (most of) the rest of the world is worse!

or… the Mail view could be wrong, and you should stop trying to be a smart-arse.

Ah but Don, you have to put some perspective on this. I’m sure any sane person (i.e. not Daily Mail writers) realises the UK is, in the overall scale of things, a pretty darn good place to live in this world. This is reflected with upper quartile rankings in all measures and a solid 12th overall. However, if I can bring in an analogy with football, this is comparing Premiership teams with the whole league.

No-one would think of comparing mid table Premiership sides with League Two sides, as it’s obvious they are better. Similarly with countries, we shouldn’t be looking at the UK in terms of how we perform against all countries, because of course we’re going to have a higher rank than African countries. We should compare against, for instance, OECD countries or developed Western democracies. The people of this country don’t want to live in a mid-to-lower-table Premiership side, they want to be the Manchester United of this world – and it is on this standard that being outside the top 10 ranks as a disappointment.

So for instance, where education ranks 21st out of 104, one might say that shows we have a high quaility of education, I would be saying “what can we do to get ahead of those other 20 countries?”.

Hi Mark,

“So for instance, where education ranks 21st out of 104, one might say that shows we have a high quaility of education, I would be saying “what can we do to get ahead of those other 20 countries?”.”

Yes, indeed. Hence the bit which suggested raising the school leaving age and reducing class sizes.

Newspapers need to write negatively and pessimistically, otherwise people wouldn’t read them. The public love drama and bad news, it is what gets us by day after day. The problem is when people believe the tripe that is written.

@6

“The people of this country don’t want to live in a mid-to-lower-table Premiership side, they want to be the Manchester United of this world”

And therein lies the rub, because “we” can’t be. To extend your analogy, we’ve effectively been banished from the Premier League ever since we spent every last penny we had along with every penny the US was willing to lend us in the Second World War.

The people of this country need to get a dose of painful reality – there’s nothing special about us. Mainland Europe has a better standard of living than we do, in large part because they never fully abandoned the principles of social democracy the way Thatcher exhorted us to, and largely succeeded. In the meantime, that supposed bastion of Anglo-style free-marketism the US is in severe trouble because of the self same problem – the combined destruction of industry and thralldom to the financial sector above all else has led to the greatest level of inequality since before The Great Depression.

Here, public services that were cut to the bone by Thatcher, and barely resuscitated by the half-hearted efforts of the New Labour project are likely to go down for the third and final time if and when Dauphin Dave sweeps to power, and we too will be in the same boat as our American cousins – expected to work harder, longer hours for fewer jobs, and expected to shuffle off and die quietly if we get too old or sick to work.

Nice job, Friedmanites!

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

They are strong and stable but democratically undermined by an over-emphasis on:

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

We might note in passing which countries ranking above Britain in the league table had higher tax burdens prior to the onset of the international financial crisis in 2007. It seems not to be widely appreciated that the burden of taxation in Britain – meaning: total tax revenues as a percentage of national GDP – was lower than in most European countries, the most notable exception being Germany, which had a marginally lower burden. Try this OECD source (scroll down):
http://lysander.sourceoecd.org/pdf/factbook2009/302009011e-10-04-01.pdf

Sadly, I note that among the bundle of indicators used to compile the Prosperity Index, Britain ranks worst on the health index at 23.

@9 – yet on this (rather opaque) survey we are above France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Belgium

Indeed we are really only “beaten” by the Scandies – which conform with your model – but also by Switzerland, US, and Oz which don’t

The scandies don’t go anywhere near Don’s model. They have flexible labour markets and a classical liberal free market economy running underneath the smooth bonnet of high tax social democracy. It is not tax itself that is the problem. It is what governments spend it on that is the problem. And our governments tend to spend it on war and special bureacratic interests. The scandies manage (to a somewhat greater extent) to spend it a little more wisely.

Incidentally, they are also smaller and more democratic, suggesting improvements might be found in greater localism.

Bear in mind that this study is going to be skewed in favour of free-market policies, which is going to have a knock-on effect in our placings. I think the point of the OP was that even by free-marketeer standards, we’re doing reasonably well, which makes the Chicken Lickens on the right screeching about going to hell in a handbasket sound somewhat hollow.

“Sadly, I note that among the bundle of indicators used to compile the Prosperity Index, Britain ranks worst on the health index at 23.”

Even the best healthcare system in the world can only mitigate our terrible diet, addiction to booze and lack of exercise to a certain extent. (I speak as someone who is perfectly willing to trade red meat, beer & sofa for a shorter life expectancy, though).

I was going to say that what all the “winners” had in common was (small) size – with the US the exception which proves the rule?

Though of the course the US is a very “local” place, with cities and counties having a very big influence on people’s lives versus the Federal or even State governments…

bluepillnation @9 wrote:

“And therein lies the rub, because “we” can’t be. To extend your analogy, we’ve effectively been banished from the Premier League ever since we spent every last penny we had along with every penny the US was willing to lend us in the Second World War.”

I am not really sure quite how precisely the Premier League analogy fits this situation. I look at that table of nations and I see plenty of countries up at the top with which Britain should most definitely be able to compete, the standards of living and prosperity of which we should most definitely be aspiring to. Norway and Sweden spring to mind. On that basis, I would say that your central point is weak.

Part of the problem is that our political elite still wishes to be in an economic and diplomatic “premier league” which does not reflect the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population, hence our wars and posturing on the “international stage”.

“improvements might be found in greater localism”

Indeed. This is why many of us are uneasy about the idea of multinational corporations running things.

@17

“Part of the problem is that our political elite still wishes to be in an economic and diplomatic “premier league” which does not reflect the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population, hence our wars and posturing on the “international stage”.”

But that’s not necessarily true. In fact, involvement in both conflicts had more support from the Tory rank-and file and the right-wing tabloids than it did from the Labour rank-and-file, until it became more useful as a political stick to beat the Labour Government with. Also, the vocal minority that the screamsheets claim to speak for openly pine for the days of Empire, when we bestrode the world like a colossus and the dusky folks knew their place.

“Just look at those Scandinavian countries clustered at the top. And check out their “personal freedom” rankings. Interesting.”

They have high taxation and spending but their economies are very liberalised. I believe Sweden for example comes high up the ranking in the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom.

“The people of this country need to get a dose of painful reality – there’s nothing special about us. Mainland Europe has a better standard of living than we do, in large part because they never fully abandoned the principles of social democracy the way Thatcher exhorted us to”

The postwar economic miracle in Germany occurred during the 1950s under the free-market policies of Ludwig Erhard while Britain stagged along with low growth under social democracy (albeit with a Tory government). Meanwhile France was doing relatively well under a form of (non-socialist) state planning. It has been suggested that our relatively poor performance was because we were tied to the Commonwealth and not exposed to European competition and European markets. My point is that it’s far more complex than “free market bad, state planning good”. Only a few years ago we’d overtaken France in total GDP and were on course to overtake Germany within a decade or so (not to mention our unemployment was lower).

“Indeed. This is why many of us are uneasy about the idea of multinational corporations running things.”

We are in agreement on that point. Multinational corporations should not be given any special treatment (as they currently have) compared with local companies and community organisations.

bluepillnation @19 wrote:

“But that’s not necessarily true. In fact, involvement in both conflicts had more support from the Tory rank-and file and the right-wing tabloids than it did from the Labour rank-and-file, until it became more useful as a political stick to beat the Labour Government with. Also, the vocal minority that the screamsheets claim to speak for openly pine for the days of Empire, when we bestrode the world like a colossus and the dusky folks knew their place.”

To be honest I fail to see the relevance of the Tory/Labour point. As far as I am concerned the Conservative and Labour parties are simply two increasingly indistinguishable wings of the same political elite. And they are nowhere more indistinguishable than on their conception of foreign affairs and the desire to strut the world stage and “sit at the big table”.

The second point is true to an extent but I am afraid that although that is an issue the surface of which we could even begin to scratch the surface of it in a comment thread such as this.

Great post, very interesting reading and good fuel for debates with anti-British thinkers, although only a real idiot (or the Daily Fail) falls for ‘these are the worst of times’ thinking with regards to the UK, which is a fine country to live in.

Makes me proud to be British.

Does that make me a racist?

@20:

“The postwar economic miracle in Germany occurred during the 1950s under the free-market policies of Ludwig Erhard”

Maybe so, but the “free-market” policies of the ’50s still had far more regulation than those of the ’80s and later, and Germany had an industrial sector – they never were and never intended to be completely reliant on entrepeneurship and finance, as the latest generation of free-marketeers keep pushing.

@22:

“To be honest I fail to see the relevance of the Tory/Labour point. As far as I am concerned the Conservative and Labour parties are simply two increasingly indistinguishable wings of the same political elite.”

That attitude got the American people (and alas, by extension the rest of the world) 8 years of George W. Bush, and see where that got us!

I did not see any reference to national debt…perhaps I over looked this. This stands at over £800 billion or over £13,000 for every man woman and child. The interest on the debt alone in 2010 is est at £43 billion.

Much of the debt is owed to the Chinese and the Gulf Arabs.

Our prosperity is based on the serfdom of our children. Thank you New Labour.

@ DHG – I love Britain and the longer I stay in Asia the more I love it, it is so sad to see it being slowly destroyed by the liberal elite.

With regards to national debt, you are trying to use one characteristic to assign value onto the ‘status’ of the UK just so you can keep attacking it.

And then you do bad maths by making out our children are serfs and this, of course, is all New Labour’s fault.

Nice to see also the typical expat nonsense about loving the UK when not living in it, always the strongest nationalists that never seem to actually be there, like the wandering Jew, in exile until the BNP take over.

Also, please stop trotting out bullshit like ‘slowly being destroyed by the liberal elite’ as clearly the UK isn’t being destroyed and we are not run by a liberal elite, you twat.

@25:

Concern trolling over national debt is a right-wing shell game. Certainly the American Right didn’t seem to mind when George Bush was mortgaging their futures hand over fist to blow up as many brown people in the Middle East as possible, but now Obama’s president all of a sudden they’ve turned into fainting blossoms over paying for a public healthcare option.

The very nature of economic slumps is that the government has to pump money into the economy for as long as private enterprise is too timid to do so. That’s the situation we find ourselves in at the moment. We can worry about debt later, once the decline is reversed.

@DHG – to misquote a line, “patriotism is the last refuge of the expat”.

@27: “Certainly the American Right didn’t seem to mind when George Bush was mortgaging their futures hand over fist to blow up as many brown people in the Middle East as possible”

You forgot to mention the borrowing to fund tax cuts mainly to benefit the rich.

“Warren Buffett, the third-richest man in the world, has criticised the US tax system for allowing him to pay a lower rate than his secretary and his cleaner.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece

@ DHG 26 -

I will pick up on some the your ill thought through comments -
You said…
“And then you do bad maths by making out our children are serfs and this, of course, is all New Labour’s fault.”
My response -
If you do not want your children to be serfs to the Chinese government (and others) you had better pay the debt back yourself NOW. Given that less that half of the population are economically active this means you will have to pay back £26,000 now please. How prosperous do you feel now? Can’t afford it?? Oh dear, in which case your children will have to pay it back to the Chinese over the course of their lifetimes – ie they are to be serfs.

Since New Labour have been in power the national debt has doubled and New Labours own forecast informs us that it is set to double again by 2014 (£52,000 due from you please). Who else should we blame if not New Labour? The BNP?

And as for the remark about typical expat nonsense saying I love Britain then not live here. I would hope that even you understand that an expat has an insight into the beauty and charms of his or her home country born of living afar.

The offensive and adolescent abuse suggests a failure in you to form reasoned rebuttal.

abc:

You are constantly utilising bad maths in all of your equations so you can push your own prejudiced agenda, you seem to think that your personal opinion on the national debt situation is indeed fact, when anyone with even basic knowledge of economics and how the world works knows that your views are misguided at best.

To begin, you speak of national debt failing to realise that as a percentage of GDP your precious Japan’s national debt stands at around 170%, second only to Zimbabwe.

The UK’s national debt as percentage of GDP is around 47%, below many fine nations such as US, Singapore, Italy, Israel, France, Germany, Canada and many many more.

Indeed, nearly every nation in the word has some kind of national debt and many far worse than the UK, so in suggesting that somehow Brits are alone in this, or the worst off in this, or that somehow it is all going to be called in…national debts are a by product of the economic framework we exist in.

Oh and even China has a national debt, some 15% of its GDP.

You willingness to blame the rise of the national debt on Labour is also false, it is as if you are ignoring all of the terrible economic factors that have exploded in the last two years, when up until then, Labour was actually keeping the national debt in some sort of order.

By all means, Labour may or may not have been able to handle the economic crisis better but avoiding an increase in the national debt is all but impossible in the current global economic situation.

I have no time for expat patriotism at all, bluster all you want about your love for the UK and come back when you’re willing to be part of the solution, not a whining idiot from the sidelines who knows little about economics.

You talk of reasoned rebuttals, you don’t deserve them, your ideas are poorly thought out and ill-structured, you are best off sticking to things you know about and not wading in out of your depth.

In relation to our ‘ancient freedoms’ here is something that may be of interest (<a href="http://charonqc.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/imagine/#comment-22792"<as is a reader's comment).

With regard to ‘ancient freedoms’ it is an understatement to say that this post by CharonQC is sobering (as is a reader’s comment).

Sorry for the double post – the first one did not appear to have been submitted.

@ DHG 31
Thank you for your comment.
My initial point was that I thought the article by Mr Paskini was remiss in not touching on the national debt – this is a perfectly valid observation. The national debt is too often over looked.

Your reference to Japan does unfortunately expose your naivety in these matters since what is important is foreign debt. The Japanese national debt is owned by the Japanese whereas our national debt is owned in more larger degree by foreigners. This is key. The Japanese cannot be serfs to themselves – they are far too intelligent to allow such a dangerous state of affairs to arise as has arisen today in New Labours Britain.

You have referred to my bad maths but I am waiting still to learn where the factual errors in my comment are?

Your assertion that I am out of my depth is unconvincing in the light of the evidence. More likely you are simply trying to discredit me since you don’t share my views. Readers (unlikely to be many if they see your name in the margin) will make up their own minds.

abc:

You don’t need to thank me, you need to read and learn. The reason national debt was not touched on was that it was not part of the assessment criteria he was referring to.

I like how because you Holy Grail of Japan is the most indebted country in the world, unable to survive on tax revenue so having to in debt itself on the grandest scale of any industrialised nation is somehow naive.

The fact of the matter is that your precious Japan is not as perfect as all that is it?

And then you return to your tired old serf line, when in reality I have already dismissed that by pointing out that the UKs debt is not as bad as most and that in the current global climate, all nations, even China, have national debt issues.

Keep your head buried in the sand, blind to contradictory evidence, as like a typical expat you throw stones from a foreign glass house.

Doug Muir has a good post on this dodgy prosperity index at AFOE
http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/europe-and-the-world/everyone-must-move-to-finland-right-now/

The index is pretty suspicious, given that it doesn’t really explain its methodology; so I’m not sure that it’s worth getting heated about exactly how high up Britain comes in its particular rating.

I’m not convinced that attempting to smear the source is useful in this discussion.