This Green and Pleasant Land

As a coda to this post on immigration, it’s worth noting that despite the impression given by politicians (especially during an election campaign) and by some of the newspapers this remains a pretty good country in which to live and most people, despite the national appetite for grumbling, are quite content with the places they live:

Now it would be mischievous to note that the Netherlands, a country with high population density, and Canada, Australia and the United States, all countries with high percentages of foreign-born inhabitants, score very highly on this contentment index and it would be silly to suppose that there’s a causal relationship here. So I won’t suggest that.

Nevertheless, when asked about their own neighbourhood people in Britain are as content as Americans or Germans and though the country may be going to the dogs their own localities are pottering along quite nicely.

The single biggest thing British respondents to Ipsos-Mori’s poll said would improve their neighbourhoods? More activities for teenagers.