The real statistics on the UK from the OECD

Money, while it cannot buy happiness, is an important means to achieving higher
living standards. In the United Kingdom, the average household earned 27 208 USD in
2008, more than the OECD average of 22 284 USD.

Richer than most then.

People in the United Kingdom work
1646 hours a year, less than most in the OECD who work 1739 hours.

Those \”ever longer working hours\” complaints are a load of knobjockeycobblers then.

67% of mothers
are employed after their children begin school, around the OECD average, suggesting
that women are able to successfully balance family and career.

That workl/family interface thing seems to be working just fine.

Concerning the public sphere, there is a strong sense of community and low levels of
civic participation in the United Kingdom. 95% of people believe that they know
someone they could rely on in a time of need, higher than the OECD average of 91%.
Voter turnout, a measure of public trust in government and of citizens\’ participation
in the political process, was 61% during recent elections; this figure is lower than the
OECD average of 72%.

We seem to already have that Big Society thing. We trust each other, it\’s the taxgobblers we don\’t trust: showing great perspicacity there.

And from a newspaper report on the report:

The two areas where Britain performed relatively poorly was health, coming 17th out of 34, with only average life expectancy and obesity a particular problem.

Gosh, you might even think that our near unique method of health care delivery, that State provision and financing, might be part of the problem here.

Switzerland and Australia were the healthiest countries.

The Swiss system being mandatory insurance with a variable deductible. The Oz system a mix of public and private insurance (and provision) but even the public system has deductibles/co-pays.

Hmm. Time to study that correlation/causation thing again then, eh?