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Britain - the Greatest Country in the world?

"The Greatest Country in the world" was how the Prime Minister concluded his speech in his Sedgefield constituency, announcing his retirement. At a recent gathering of my contemporaries, now in the sixties, the consensus was that Britain was a place to move away from. This cannot be dismissed as the reaction of a bunch of grumpy old men. There are many worse countries than Britain in the world, but to make such a comment is plain silly.

How typical of the man, too, to read off a list of statistics, carefully selected to show the Labour government's record in the best possible light. This was as simplistic approach as Labour's "Five Pledges", which formed part of the 1997 election campaign.

Improvement in the overall quality of life is not what most people in Britain would recognise as we go about our daily business in Britain today, encountering as we do so the failure of so many public sector bodies to perform to a satisfactory standard.
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