As much as the public like to blame everyone else when things go wrong, the voters in UK general elections ultimately determine the leaders and decision makers, and therefore have only to look to themselves if things don’t work out.

For TCE, the spring of 2009 will be remembered as a period of time cemented in the mind albeit for all the wrong reasons.

As Alistair Darlings farcical April budget speech ended, the whole notion of Blair’s ‘Cool Britannia’ felt very distant and even the more ridiculous. For this was a seminal moment, the precise day, the precise hour, when the Chancellor described in the language of political spin, that we living in Britain, were %$*&ed.

In a year or so Britain will be entering the league of countries that impose super high income tax rates. Is this somehow meant to motivate the mid and high earners to keep paying for the growing sections of British society on the take? Surely many will simply leave the country?

Northern European countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, manage a culture that appears to suit all bar the ultra high net worth. They have found that if taxes are spent on health and social wealth fare, as well as infrastructure, public transport, and leisure, that most remain happy to contribute and stay to enjoy the resulting higher standard of living. You don’t have to be a high tax country to enjoy a good quality of life as Switzerland admirably demonstrates, although within Europe it generally seems a common pre-requisite.

Taxes can only provide so much information about a country of course, and how they effect and are reflected, in the economy of a country. Taxation is a dynamic and for Britain higher taxes are being imposed out of necessity as a direct result of the Labour government’s mismanagement of the public purse. Britain’s debt mountain has been out of control for years and whilst in a recession, a severe threat to national economic stability. The S&P agrees having Britain on watch for a credit downgrade.

-No wonder then for those contributing to the economy that a persistent feel bad factor lingers in the UK.

In the 1990s New Labour took the political middle ground by looking after the super rich under directives from Tony Blair.

These non-domicile wealthy benefitted from Brown and Blair but ironically show no signs of leaving Britain en masse (arguably they have been the least effected as they have access to many tax rebate and offset schemes and only pay tax on money remitted or earned in the UK).

Recent fiscal actions are nonetheless unwelcome and needlessly sow the seeds of doubt regarding prospects for the future.

What is more obvious to the majority (i.e. those earning up to say twice the average UK income) is that the quality of life in Britain is dropping quicker than Gordon Brown’s credibility, and is just another piece in the puzzle of a Britain on the decline.

Although statistics to measure the quality of life are not perfect, where the research data is comprehensive, they do enable valid comparisons. The measures and the weightings often vary depending on the purpose of the research; however it is clear from those freely available, that Britain is also the sick cousin of the developed world offering amongst the lowest quality of life to its residents.

If we segment British society into three age groups, the young, the working, and the retired, the observations are quite sobering.

For the young;

According to a UNICEF study Britain’s children are rated as the unhappiest out of twenty one industrialised nations. They drink the most, smoke more, and have more sex than their peers. Using forty indicators including relative poverty, child safety, crime rate, amount spent on education etc, Britain and the USA are at the bottom of most of the ratings.

In a study a quarter of Britain’s young teens rated their health as fair or poor. The worst result for any OECD country. In the past decade the number of school age binge drinkers admitted to hospital has risen by over fifty percent, and across all age groups the number has doubled.

The number of children living in poverty (defined as less than 60% of the median household income) has doubled in the past thirty years and at its peak in the late 90’s, was the highest in the EU. In a 2008 report by London Child Poverty Commission, over 40% of children living in Greater London were living in poverty and 50% in inner London.

For the working;

Already with some of the highest marginal tax rates in the world and increasing, disposable income has dropped quicker than the value of the over priced houses that we British live in.

Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, said: “We may earn substantially more than our European neighbours but, when it comes to quality of life, we remain the ‘sick man of Europe’. Soaring food prices and inflation – not to mention high property costs – are placing the biggest squeeze on disposable incomes in well over a decade. With below average investment in health and education, it appears that we are getting a raw deal from the government for the fruits of our labour”.

UK motorists pay the highest prices for diesel in Europe around 18% above the average, and the second highest price for unleaded petrol, at 6% more than average. Brits pay over 40% per cent more for gas and 5 % more for electricity, making it the third most expensive country in Europe for fuel.

Sadly public transport is poor, often unreliable, and too expensive; so we can’t give up our cars just yet.

British private sector workers also suffer when it comes to holiday entitlement, typically enjoying 28 days a year (including bank holidays). This compares to the French, who receive an average of 40 days, well above the European average of 33. The Poles work the most hours per week (41 compared to an average of 37) but have nearly two weeks more holiday than workers in the UK.

Public sector workers fair considerably better than their private sector cousins in the UK (i.e. the bit of society that actually pays for everything and creates the wealth). Not only do they enjoy higher average salaries but also have higher holiday entitlement and better retirement schemes in the form of final salary pension schemes.

Recent scandals regarding expenses for MPs has highlighted the scale of the abuse of the public purse in the civil service, and across local authorities in general.

No surprises to see workers in Britain sit below most countries in Europe (even Poland) when it comes to a variety of quality of life measures.

For the retired;

You would think that things would somehow improve for the retired British, but alas this does not seem to be the case.

Private sector workers in Britain not only have to suffer the shortest holiday entitlement whilst working, a week below the European average, but also has the third highest retirement age.

The UK government spends around 8% of GDP on healthcare, well below the European average of 8.6%, with life expectancy at 78.9 the third lowest.

According to another study that compares the economies of 183 countries, Britain does not even make the top 40 in the list of hospital beds per 1,000 people.

So not only have the British retired worked longer when they retire, they are looked after relatively poorly thereafter.

In summary:

It is fair to say that for Brits it is much easier to find aspects of British living that negatively affect the quality of life.

Even if British workers had the extra holidays to take they would have to go travel overseas to enjoy some extra sunshine. The UK has some 17% fewer hours of sun than the European average

The Brits have not been oblivious as they have been voting with their feet for years with tens of thousands across all skill levels leaving annually, emigration increasing at a rate of some 5% per annum. Maybe the weather is important, after all Spain gets the most sunshine with 50% more hours than the average European average!

Unfortunately in mass immigration Britain tends to attract the lower paid from poorer countries, the net effect of which is to take employment away from the local UK workforce. The benefit system in Britain is much to blame as immigrant families tend to stay as they receive much better provision than their homeland should they fail to find work. Britain kindly paying benefits back to their homeland!.

There must be something good about Britain? Is loyalty to the Crown reciprocated?

Well of course not.

The armed forces have been recruiting Gurkhas for several generations because of their tenacity in battle, yet they have found themselves denied residency.

This disgraceful situation finally righted with the help of a very tenacious Joanna Lumley, the government embarrassed into finally addressing this outrage.

Britain is broken and sadly without a timetable for the many fixes needed.

If you are a civil servant, an immigrant from a poorer country, a refugee, or part of the rich non domicile set of course you’ll stay. For the rest of us, the attractions have been fading for a decade, the British government relying on apathy to keep Britons here rather than seeking a potentially better life found elsewhere.