Sign o' the Times

BBC News have just posted an item about a programme they're going to be showing on television, about citizens' opinions on whether the UK is in a "moral decline". Unfortunately, the summary shows that most people think so.

This is, of course, one of the reasons I left the UK in the first place. I was finding it more and more difficult to be happy in a place where nobody really seems to care about their neighbours any more, the government keep promising to do something about it, but they seem to be clueless themselves, setting up "citizen's juries" to find out what the "common person" would do - more ammunition to those who say that Labour are out of touch with the nation. Social integration is also deterioating between native Brits and immigrants, and it's my opinion that this is in no small part because of so much negative press in the daily "Red Tops" (The Sun, The Mirror et al). Of course, the press is always supposed to be neutral, but I've noticed they're very clever in walking the tightrope between comment and opinion, giving White Van Man (the average Red Top reader) subliminal anti-comments without being blatant.

I'm not saying Sweden is Utopia, of course. There's social integration problems here too (as an example, this item on The Local, Sweden's news in English). But the nation, in general, are a tolerant people in my experience, and friendly (once you get them over their initial shy silence). The taxes, although high, guarantee a first-class "cradle to grave" system where the government looks after you at certain critical points in life (their parental leave policy, for instance, is generous) and as an offset, renting / mortgages are cheaper, so not as much is drained out of your monthly wage.

I would be interested to see the BBC programme in full, but I doubt I can. If anyone sees it, let me know your opinions on it.