Map of the Week: Trust and Belonging
Why are levels of "trust and belonging" among British under-50s the lowest in Europe?
This for me is the most alarming question for the UK emerging from the "National Accounts of Well-Being" compiled by the New Economics Foundation think tank from data in the 2006-07 European Social Survey (ESS).
Trust is the glue which holds society together, so evidence that the UK has the poorest "trust and belonging" levels for every age bracket from 15 to 50 is deeply disturbing.
The ESS tries to measure trust and belonging by comparing answers to questions such as these:
• Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?
• Do you think that most people would try to take advantage of you if they got the chance, or would they try to be fair?
• Would you say that most of the time people try to be helpful or that they are mostly looking out for themselves?
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This map compares "trust and belonging" scores in 22 European nations for residents aged between 15 and 24. Indicators are designed so that they are measured on 0-10 scales, calibrated so that 5 always represents the average score across Europe.
[Source: National Accounts of Well-being / nef]
The map looks at under-25s, but it is the same depressing story for ages 25-34 and 35-49. If it weren't for some reasonably healthy scores among the over-50s, the UK would drop below Bulgaria and Slovakia as the least trusting of all the European nations surveyed.
The researchers suggest that our low "trust and belonging" score may be "the result of the development of a highly individualistic culture in the UK". Basically, the suggestion is that we are in danger of becoming the most selfish nation in Europe.
If the research is robust and the conclusion sound, then this is one of the most troubling findings about my homeland that I have ever read.
Looking at overall wellbeing, the UK comes only 13th out of 22 nations. This is based on a measure of both personal and social wellbeing - in effect, indicators of individual and community happiness.
An explanation of how they are calculated can be found here, along with a host of other information and a chance to measure your own wellbeing.
Among the factors which emerge as having a big negative impact on a country's wellbeing score are a general fear of crime and a lack of trust in institutions. Also, the more time its population spends watching TV, the more unhappy a country appears to be.
One can see why Britain might struggle.
What about GDP? Well, there appears to be a correlation between income and personal wellbeing, but the nef report includes the latest instalment in the argument - does economic growth make a country happier?
Richard Easterlin, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California is the man behind the so-called "Easterlin paradox" which sparked the debate back in 1974.
His work concluded that richer people at any given point in time may be happier, but as we all get richer, we don't all get happier.
Easterlin attributes this apparent paradox to the importance of relative income to wellbeing. Once a certain absolute level of income is reached, gains in wellbeing are only due to having higher income relative to other people, not simply from having higher income per se.
In other words, just because a country is richer does not mean it is necessarily happier.
Since the paradox was published, there has been lots of other academic work questioning the findings - but now Easterlin has responded to his critics with some new analysis.
Reviewing evidence from 36 countries, he argues again that "there is no significant relation between the rate of economic growth and the change in life satisfaction".
His critics, he says, have mistaken a short-term association for "the long-term relationship".
The argument will go on, but for the UK there is a clear challenge - to rebuild the trust and sense of belonging that will be vital for a happy and contented society in the years ahead.
I'm 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~42~RS~)
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Is it any wonder we're not Trusting
We've a unelected PC who thinks he's GOD, a chancellor who thinks that 1 + 1 = 1,00000+ (obviously a GCSE "A" there!), MPs whose sole interest is where the next 10K on their expenses is comming from, a Tax system that benefits the idle and penalises the workers and savers, banks that feel their worst excesses should be funded by the public, an immigration policy that lets anyone in, muderers, rapists, the worse the better it seems, a police force whose "performance" figures are suspect, kids who can do what they like and then "can't be named for legal; reasons!"
Need I go on...
Oh yes, I'm over 50 and definitely a non-truster
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The answer's obvious: thirty years of jungle economics, of dog-eat-dog market mania. In the jungle you can't trust anyone, and slavering greed-crazed dogs don't feel any sense of belonging. Thirty years of "there's no such thing as society" and society has lost what once glued it together. Cameron wants to heal the "broken society" but his heroine Thatcher was the first to break it.
Over 50s, people who grew up before Thatcher, retain a sense of trust and belonging. Those below that age have been poisoned in the rush to consume. Dump greed-mad economics, dump consumerism, if you want trust and belonging to return.
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It would be very interesting to see how our score as a nation has changed over time. My suspicion is that it is probably getting worse, and has done since 1980 or thereabouts.
I would also like to see how the score breaks down across social classes.
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What can you expect when you have:
1) A government that is institutionally sleaazy and dishonest, that never accepts responsibility for anything, and routinely uses stealth, spin and outright lies.
2) A public sector that is unaccountable, and often corrupt and which accepts no blame for anything.
3) Public servants that can stay in jobs regardless of their conduct or their competence.
4) Uncontrolled immigration and obsessive multiculturalism, which is destroying our values, our heritage and sense of identity.
5) A something for nothing benefits culture, which encourages playing the system and dishonesty.
6) Ineffective policing, an incompetent CPS, and a judicial system that is a soft touch on criminals.
Thank you NuLabour!
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We've been well trained not to trust others, thanks to scaremongering and other elements in the media:
- 'Neighbours from Hell'! Your neighbour may be a serial killer, or attempt to knife you if you ask them to turn the music down...
- Everyone's a potential paedophile, trying to abduct your kids...
- Those chavs over there, sitting on their butts soaking up benefits... That's *your* money they're spending on Plasma TVs, matey!
- You are under constant CCTV surveillance, so it must be a lethal jungle out there...
- Everyone under 20 carries a knife, and will stab you if you so much as look at them funny...
- The younger ones have been trained to grass you up to the council if you put your rubbish out on the wrong day...
- The council is probably tapping your phone to find out if your dog's messed on the pavement...
- Pretty much everywhere has a sign saying that physical/verbal assaults on staff will not be tolerated, again, reinforcing the 'jungle' mentality...
- We have a Government that does not listen to anyone, and bulldozers away at our rights, privacy and freedoms
...The list goes on.
Ask yourself: are you really surprised that we don't trust each other these days?
Now ask yourself: what can *you* do about this?
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I fall into the 35-49 bracket and I'm afraid I too am a 'non-truster'. It is not helped by the fact that when I walk through the town where I live only one in every six person speaks English. It is not helped by the fact that young teens, of different persuasions, hang around the streets in gangs threatening each other. It is not helped by a nation of people who think 'Me first, everyone can sort themselves out' and it is DEFINITELY not helped by a government who are quick to assist & aid every other country in the world EXCEPT the one they are supposed to be looking out for - the UK!!
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Perhaps it is because everybody totally distrusts the State and politicians.....the State very obviously totally distrusts its citizens...why else would it spend so much energy working out new ways to regulate and spy on our activities?
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If the three questions quoted above as examples are typical, I suspect the resuts are skewed. Expressions such as "you can't be too careful" tend to generate an instinctive response that people would not necessarily say upon reflection.
The questions are too extreme in their alternatives. Speaking personally, I think people cannot be completely trusted, but I think they can be to an extent. People probably are more socially introverted these days, but do still maintain an element of social conscience. How am I supposed to reply to the example questions?
To ask a question like "can people be trusted or not" is an over-simplification. A question phrased, "To what extent can people be trusted?" might have produced a more reliable picture.
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"Oh yes, I'm over 50 and definitely a non-truster"
... and evidently someone who believes everything they read in the Daily Mail/Express too
For goodness' sake.
I saw the newspaper headlines at the weekend, which nearly made me ill. Where is the headline that talks about other countries (Spain, for example) "welcoming" hundreds of UK criminals and more? Of course, that's not something we talk about, because it's obviously "foreigners" who are the problem, not our own citizens.
The press has a lot to answer for in establishing British attitudes, and perpetuating a little Englander culture of blame and distrust. Fear sells newspapers and gives power to those who peddle in it. We need more leaders who are prepared to counter such nonsense, rather than pandering to small-minded prejudice.
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trust and belonging very laughable.
I have no trust in ego and do not want to belong to the current set of ego's that govern us.
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Countries in the red have high levels of immigration and promote 'multiculturalism'.
A bunch of disparate peoples from different cultures living cheek to jowl on the same plot of land aren't going to trust one another. There's no common purpose.
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well i agree totally and wholeheartedly with the first comment ... and all the others are awaiting moderation which i have never seen before! i do not think we are the most selfish nation but i do think we may qualify as the most angry ... i am furious at the way this country is being run ... and there is absolutely nothing i can do about it. roll on the general election and if a new political party has not learnt any lessons in the last 11 years ... then roll on the revolution.
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Mark, this is indeed sad.
My own (limited but relevant) experience confirms the depressing findings.
Over the last decade or so the atmosphere in the UK has been that of an untrusting and suspicious society.
I blame it on erosion of freedoms, control-freakery, nanny-state attitudes and knee-jerk, PC policing that removes common sense and proportionality.
E.g. Over surveillance, database-politics, 42-days & ID-cards, speed-cameras, ban-it mentality (hunting, smoking etc.) and petty-policing (juveniles drawing on pavements and throwing pork pies).
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Mark,
If this calms you at all; I wouldn't make the link between selfishness and a lack of trust. All the questions are framed to refer to people in general, rather than friends or associates of the respondent. According to some analyses, we cannot properly empathise with more than a smallish group of people. Beyond this, our responses are going to be conditioned not so much by selfishness as by our views on society as a whole.
To conflate the two is like saying, for example, fear of crime makes us selfish. In fact, a lot of people fear crime altruistically, for the sake of family and friends. People who do so irrationally are likely to exhibit fear of society as a whole, but it would be false to call them selfish.
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The problems here are that questions asked of people in one country or of one culture will elicit different culturally determined responses.
In some countries loyalty comes before truth. In France for example ask a person if he trusts people and he will reply, yes. But note he removes his radio from his car, has very high walls around his house and two or three locks on each outside door. On the other hand he has a close and closed circle of family and friends to whom he is loyal and trusting. Within this group lies his security and his sense of well being.
In the UK we are privileged to have a lightly constrained media who give undue priority to bad news that slowly and surely infects us all.
The current economic crisis illustrates this point well. In the UK the grim story is rammed home with as much detailed information as time and space will allow. Take a look at Le Figaro, Die Welt, Corriere Della Sera and El Pais and you'll find nothing but the very biggest stories that can't be hidden or ignored. With so little detailed information reaching their readers is it any wonder that they feel mor content than the British?
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Unfortunately it's hard to change a situation like this, because the cynics will never accept that their own attitude is part of the problem. Witness the first comment on this post - we ask "Why do people think things are so rubbish?" and they instantly reply "Because they ARE rubbish!" And if things improved, they would suspect they still weren't as good as they seemed, that we were somehow being hoodwinked and all was rotten underneath.
I'm not saying everything is rosy, far from it, but many people really do seem determined to see the worst in everything and then congratulate themselves for being clever enough to do so, whilst sneering at anyone who dares to be remotely optimistic. It's not really a helpful position.
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I would argue secularisation and lack of religious belief leads to lack of common values and therefore lack of belonging. And before you ask, I'm an agnostic.
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Six years ago I was one of a number of 'protest vote' councillors elected in our local council elections. We have no political ambitions or alleigences, just a passion for our town. In six years we have found nothing but an impenetrable maze of civil servant quangoisms and political miasma which have done nothing but frustrate and dictate anything and everything we want to do.... and yes you've guessed it... Joe Public now think we are no better than any other in public office. If alienation and trust are broken down by the 'system' for those of us who try, what chance England, and what is the point of trying to stem this terminal decline in our society?
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What percentage would have posted a strong feeling of trust and belonging in Nazi Germany in 1935? I suspect a large %.
While intriguing, the results are hard to assess.
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I'd be interested to see how this level of trust relates to socio-economic classes and more importantly which newspaper they read.
It seems to me that certain people only want to hear bad news so they can get outraged about it.
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The true long-term benefits of Thatcherism.
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I support the comments as already stated. Add also the role of Tabloids in indoctrinating the less clever that quality of life is about being a celebrity and mainly going shopping, fashion shows and exorbitant luxury holidays for pampering.No wonder everyone lives in an age of greed and envy and a me me me attitude.How can young people ever hope to realize that every one of the 6 billion of us has a right to be here, and we ought to care for and take good care of all of us,that we are indeed our brothers keepers if we do not want to become extinct, instead just picking up weapons to annihilate our so called "foes".
All our role models are just so anti- life.
I came home to UK a decade ago,after half a life in Africa and was stunned by all the celebrity worshiping cult in UK and how little moral values are propounded.The ghastliness and high sales of tabloids prov active headlines and Xenophobia producing editorials I find quite shaming.And divisive.
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@ SiverPO
There was a marvellous routine by Russell Howard at the Apollo last week about how, basically, Brits don't realise how good they have it.
None of your complaints amount to anything significant. Your life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, you need never worry about access to medical services or education for your children. I doubt very much that you worry about getting clean water, or your government being taken over in a military coup by a genocidal megalomaniac. Your children will not be required to work for a living, nor is it likely that they will resort to working in the sex industry of a foreign country in search of a better life.
If all you ever have to worry about is your garbage being collected once a fortnight istead of twice, then you can count yourself very lucky indeed.
Lighten up.
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I think Browned Off has hit the nail on the head.
When the government stops listening to everyone else except the people, I mean the majority of people who put them into power and Europe. Then we will be able to go back to a national identity and have pride and faith in our society.
I must add that the use of the phrase "Your Country Needs You" as used by some talking about this latest stupidity for the European Song Contest is an insult.
That phrase conjures up memories of WW1 British spirit and all that goes with it.
Which today the government has decided is not acceptable as the immigrants might be upset. So how would this government recruit so many men with this attitude???
I would like to comment on Dogsolitude_UK The answer is stop voting for these parties that have made a living out of lies and deceit.
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No surprises then. I won't try and identify the causes by citing a list of my own personal annoyances, like so many other comments, but I would think that the best course of action would be to have a good long hard look at the countries who did best in this survey, and see what they're doing differently from us, whether it be their governments policies, their immigration laws, the content of their TV programmes, or the way they report their news, or any other perceived influence on their behaviour. Obviously, they're doing something right, and we're doing something wrong. Let's find out what it is, and copy them, and maybe in a generation we can put right the mistakes we've clearly made in the last two or three.
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To be honest, I'm surprised The Netherlands didn't fall at the very least in the orange zone, the calculations must have been out, just a bit. I've never met a more insular, bad mannered nation that doesn't trust anything or anyone above sea level. Maybe because they all agree with their national saying of "Ikke, ikke, ikke, de rest kan stikke." (Me, me me the rest can shove it)
I've not been to any other European country that's anywhere near as uptight as this one.
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I think you as a member of the media should first look at your own profession for an explanation. The constant sensationalisation of every negative happening by the media, tabloids especially, is at the root of much of this lack of trust.
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Too much finger pointing here.
What I'd like to say is aimed mainly at my fellow over-50's, especially those who, like me, are trained in scientific thought.
We don't trust one another for a very good reason - many of us aren't trustworthy.
When we, as a nation, turned from whatever faith our parents followed we threw out the baby of ethics with the bathwater of superstition.
As a child I was raised with the parable of the good samaritan. As an exercise, try to find an under twenty who has even heard the story. When I was at a funeral recently I was intrigued to find that only three people seemed able to recite the lord's prayer with the holy man taking the service.
I don't want to comment on the role of any religion. I DO want to underline the decline in ethical awareness over which WE - the over 50's - have complacently presided.
I don't blame Mr Brown any more than I blame myself. Or you.
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A certain friend of mine is what some people might call 'too trusting'. He's always willing to believe the best in people and wants to trust those around him. However, he's been screwed over so many times that he's about to lose everything.
BBC researchers would do well to take a walk around the area where BBC Television Centre is located - the one at the end of the 30-second time-waster which is screened constantly on BBC News. White City is appropriately named as anybody can buy White (a slang word for Crack Cocaine) with more ease than they can buy a loaf of bread in the vicinity. Journos would soon learn why trust is such a rare thing when they've lost all of their valuables and gotten addicted to Crack.
This situation was created by the Government and must be solved by the Government. Sink council estates such as White City have ghettoised areas and created places where a young person has two choices - stack shelves in the nearest supermarket or join a gang. Residents of White City are treated relatively well; the whole estate is pre-wired for Cable TV, the gardens are well-kept and there are two primary schools and a doctors' surgery on the estate. Yet still you can't walk near White City without someone asking if you want to buy drugs. The trade is so prolific that it has spilled onto neighbouring streets; Goldhawk Road, about a mile away, is known locally as 'The Front Line' due to the amount of Class A drugs which can be bought there.
As for the Police, they execute the occasional raid in surrounding streets but don't dare to patrol White City Estate.
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I couldn't agree more with post number 2.
"There's no such thing as society". It's a wonderful doctrine to get 60,000,000 to get along & trust one another.
Added to this the 'you can own your very own piece of it that nobody else can have' selfish mentality of privatising everything and thoughtless conspicuous consumption and there you go.
Thatcher did more harm to society in the UK than any enemy has come close to doing!
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#1
Your comment speaks volumes about why there is so little trust in this country. It's because people like you have their thinking done for them by rags like the Daily Mail.
If you knew anything about immigration policy you would know that having a criminal record is a sure fire way of not getting into the country, even as a tourist. If you are talking about illegal immigration then that is a different matter altogether - there is little any country can do about this but to try and claim that we have a policy that will let in murderers and rapists is frankly laughable.
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Re 11, quote Gloops "Countries in the red have high levels of immigration and promote 'multiculturalism'. "
That might be a factor, but if that would be a major factor, countries like Germany would be well into the infra-red, Bulgaria wouldn't be as red as it is and Portugal wouldn't be green.
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Like #5 I too blame the media.
I have chosen to stop reading papers after going through a prominent morning paper and not finding a single piece of good news in the whole paper (excepting things like sport where good and bad news depend on what side you are on).
The media have been very good at instilling huge amounts of fear into the pubic (who remembers bird flu?) and blowing up relatively minor things into issues that get far more attention than they deserve (cue Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross). Lets not get started on opinions of the media's role in this recession.
The media have created the myth of the evil Britain that doesn't actually exist, we just think (and therefore act like) it does.
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Apart from our immediate family, who would you say we can trust?
Selfishness is forced on us by the take all state and inequalities as a result of "equality" policies.
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#11
Your knowledge of European demographics is clearly lacking.
Swede, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Portugal have all had high levels of immigration and promote multi-culturalism. Not one of them is in the 'red'.
In fact the only other country on the map that is in the red is Bulgaria - not exactly a country known for its multiculturalism.
As much as you'd like it to, the map just doesn't reflect your small minded prejudice - in fact quite the opposite.
Please refrain from making such comments in the future - it will save you the embarrassment of looking foolish, as you do now.
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Modern civilisation is incompatible to individual happiness,we live by false standards.We seek wealth,power and success for ourselves,egocentrism is the cause of mistrust,It's an instinctual inheritence,the demands of self preservation do not unite people,altruism is not a natural human emotion.In the early stages of human development it was only the fittest who survived,these archaic origins still survive in our collective unconscious.As in all the animal world the distrust of others remains regardless of age.
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#6
If you distrust people of the basis that they are foreign then you deserve to live in your own little world of fear.
For those of us who are slightly more enlightened this is not a problem.
I'm assuming you never speak English when abroad? Heaven forbid you should me mistrusted for being 'foreign'. That is assuming you've ever left England, which judging by your comments i suspect not.
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it's not necessarily a bad thing. it's definitely a price we pay for a better long term economy and cosmopolitanism. you find some obscure tribe and im sure it's trust chart is off the scales.
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Having lived in a few EU countries, and being from the UK I would pretty much agree with the statements made in this study. Almost every aspect of the way the UK is run is driven by fear, and often fear in the form of competition. The result is that people are unsure about their long term job prospects, don't trust their neighbours and certainly don't trust ANY foreigners (and I include EU nationals in that list). There is also thanks to media hype a fear of crime, which while partially genuine is often beyond any acceptable levels of fear which should be installed into a nation. The fault lies with the people, the Government and the media. Some examples of how fear is induced by non-fearful means include:
- Education league tables (or performance indicators for almost every aspect of everything), while healthy to a point it instills constant terror in the heart of teachers and pupils. The latter of course do not want to go to rubbish school, but by the same token measuring in absolute terms this area is notoriously difficult. It thus makes those being measured constantly worried about how they compare to others.
- Constant fear induced by the media and opposition that crime is everywhere, usually followed by some ill thought out rheotic and clamp down by the Government. In reality the UK is for the most part safe, that does not mean however that we should not clamp down on knife crime.
- A fear that those receiving social benefits, namely unemployment are spongers thus making you feel bad about paying into such a system. While no doubt partially true as the recession bites most people on benefits will be those who have paid in for decades, and require perhaps a year or two's support. This fear then manifests itself in hating those in need rather than trusting them to actually find word. Also who in their normal mind would opt to stay on benefits of around 45 quid a week for ever anyway, probably very few.
- Use of time limited contracts of employment rather than proper jobs. This means you are forever looking over your shoulder, and even if it is not your fault you can be put out the door.
- Fear of being "not wealthy". The UK is driven by what can be seen, namely wealth in the form of property (well until recently). Renting (as I did for years) is seen as being a result of you being a failure. The result, fear of everyone being better than you, so insecurity is now the major facet of many people's lives.
- Fear of strangers. We are terrified of any foreigners, and even people from other parts of the UK taking our jobs or using our public services. The result is the media and Govt feed off it making it worse.
- Fear of the EU. It's far from a perfect organisation but is about the only one which will protect your human rights!
- Fear that the UK is awful, or will become awful soon. Do not forget that we do enjoy some of the best living standards on earth, even if problems arise from time to time.
- Fear of political correctness. one of the more petty ones. It seems this is stifling debate and objective discussion. Again its not really a major issue, but is often used as a cover for nothing other than blantant racism.
- Fear of being a nobody. A recent study found that 1 in 10 school kids want to be a celebrity, no dount many others do as well. We are totally obsessed with these usually useless people who are held up as near gods. The result is that many people feel they have nothing to look forward to. I for one do not seek to be the next Beckham.
Well just a short list, but Britain is sadly a petty insular little island. I know I am from there, it's only once you get a chance to live in other countries you realise how insular it is. It's sad as most people are perfectly decent individuals!
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On a related issue – do we trust the Govt's promises and all the public inquiries to halt the tragic cases of child deaths at the hands of their parents and carers?
From today's news:
'Social workers are struggling to cope because most of the teams they work in have too many vacancies, their caseloads are too heavy and inexperienced staff are being thrown in at the deep end, according to Unison, which has warned that it is ‘only a matter of time’ before there is another Baby P type tragedy.'
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=8347
It may be worth following this story up.
As for general trust, I think many people judge others by their own standards, so I’m not sure I'd trust many of the commentators above : - )
As for low levels of happiness and wellbeing, I think the idea of Affluenza makes some sense (from the book of the same name) - a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.
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I don't trust people in general because they are so unpleasant to me when I try to be polite. However I do not think of myself as selfish. Maybe if we all expressed better manners rather than assuming the worst we could improve the situation a little. It is all very well blaming it on society, but we are society.
BTW the only people who are polite and friendly to me are teenagers.
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Re: 26 (Ilah2001).
I disagree about the Dutch.
While the society in the Netherlands is not perfect, there are several aspects which are (in my opinion) better than in the UK, as far as quality of life is concerned:
- good community awareness, and genuine concern for minorities, the disadvantaged and the environment
- funnily enough, a less oppressive atmosphere than in the UK. Less paranoia, more balance.
- less extreme-wealth and less extreme-poverty
I now feel happier bringing up my kids in the Netherlands.
The UK has changed a lot over the past decade or so, and I do not feel that British society is as balanced as it was when I was younger.
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Interesting to see the comments here are the usual rants...
Wouldn't it be nice if in the current economic circumstances people actually gave up on ranting and said "We want to live in a better country; I'll do my bit to help my neighbours and friendly to immigrants"?
If only...
Anyway, I like you ranters, you make me happy that I can be scared by the state of the world, as well as friendly, without letting steam come out my ears.
Hope to see you soon, take care!
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@ Harveydef no. 15
I think you miss the point about foreign newspapers, such as Le Figaro, Die Welt, Corriere Della Sera and El Pais, which are far more objective, balanced and factual than much of the UK press. It's not that stories are "hidden" or "ignored", but rather that minor events are not sensationalised as they are over here.
Where else would stories about people over-filling their bins, wrong-shaped bananas and politicians affairs make the front page? The UK press selectively chooses which stories to publish (and which angle to take) in order to push its own agenda and vision of Britain. It's no longer good enough to simply report a story, it has to be shocking and call for an immediate reaction from readers. The same technique was used in Germany in the 1930s, we now call it "propaganda".
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I would go along with the media train of thought. I live and work all over Europe and the UK has the worst media of the lot
The tabloids are nothing short of being criminaly idiotic with their reporting. The media in general is obsessed with celebrity and all things attached
And the general populace take it all on board. If it would be possible to stop all the newspapers printing for a month then everyones outlook on life would be much better
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how can anybody in the UK trust anyone when the goverment sells us to the EU and the British dont want it ( meaning the vast majority)
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This is an indication of something we all know - that too many people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
We have a government who regards targets and costs as the only criteria, and have no regard for wider life values. If you can't measure it, it doesn't matter
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These findings do not surprise me. As a Brit living in a "happier" country (The Netherlands) I see marked differences in attitudes between people of all ages here and in the UK (when I am there).
If you look at the figures on the map it seems to me that the countries where a social network is seen as important seem to score better than those where people maintain more distance from one another (e.g. the difference between the Netherlands and Belgium: the Belgians are generally more wary of networking while the Dutch seek it out). The British too are more "isolationist" compared to the Irish, for example. Spain- a country of sociable people who accept life as it is - also scores well.
I think the problem in the UK starts with the "overprotection" of children who, after school, are not allowed to play outside or together anymore for fear of traffic, predators (you name it). Those children then grow up in a state of suspicion and fear which must ultimately translate into a sense of distrust and not belonging.
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I'm a truster. I didn't used to be. I used to read the papers and feel scared and stay at home. But that made me miserable. So I started volunteering with the homeless and with disaffected young people. This has shown me two things:
(1) That the world is full of caring trusting people - we just don't hear about them because they don't sell newspapers.
(2) That the view we get about our society from the media can be very skewed. Our community project is full of so-called 'chavs', 'youths' and 'bums'. And they are lovely, kind and courteous.
We're all so busy with our heads-down, eyes to the ground, pushing and jostling one another as we rush from one place to another. But life is generally lovely. And if you open up to them, other people can be lovely too.
If any of you are feeling glum about 'the state of the world today' - as I was - I diagnose a bit of volunteering to make you see the positive side of our wonderful communities.
:-)
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In reply to #37:
When I live in a foreign country, on a full time basis, I will fully expect to be surrounded by foreign tongues. However, for as long as I live in a town in the UK I would like to hear English as a FIRST language, NOT a 3rd or 4th language as it currently is.
I do not live in a "little world of fear", I have the misfortune to live in a country which is becoming over run by small 'ghettos' where those who have moved into the UK in the last 7 -10 years all clique together to the the exclusion of UK nationals. If I go into these areas I am looked at as though I am the foreigner in this country.
Your comments regarding travelling experiences are quite ridiculous because there is a vast difference between a visiting tourist and someone foreign living in the UK but under their own rules.
Until recent years I was not xenophibic in any way but the vast influx of overseas residents, encouraged by this government, have changed the way I feel and I have become selfish in my approach to life as I now have to cling to whatever small bit of Britishness we are allowed to have.
It is only in this country that being proud of your nationality is considered a sin.
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Dera Mark
This has been done systematically over the last five generations, by a sreies of political policies to suppress the British way of Life., then destroy it.
It ha been planned so that the Nation most objectable to any forms of integration in Europe has its say progressively diminished through economic migration.
The over Fifties know the score, those that follow have had no wars to fight and take everything for granted,
Britain is now incapable of the Dunkirk spirit, and the Politicians know it, that has been the process all along, it has been all about conditioning the new generation that Europe is the way foerward without a referendum, and thats the reason Brown sain NO.
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While many of the comments above may or may not reflect the reality of modern Britain, as someone who has studied social affairs I can't help but be worried at the method the researchers have used.
Let's for a moment think about trust. How do people trust? I may trust my bank manager with my deposits (or at least used to), but I probably would not trust him with my first born. I still trust him, but only in a specific sense. Again, while I may not trust someone, I doesn't necessarily follow that I distrust him or her. I may be indifferent.
More broadly, living in a modern, technological society as one we live in means that we directly and indirectly interact with thousands if not millions of people. As such, the social bonds needed to work in this environment have to change to fit the reality. However, many of the posters and perhaps the authors of this report have still got in mind a rather antiquated view of trust as being this totalising relationship of complete dependence on the other. We no longer live in small isolated villages with little outside contact, and our very basis for interactions has changed hugely.
Therefore, reports such as this one where social scientists attempt to quantify qualitative interactions need much deeper and reflective analysis of their subject matter.
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"Trust is the glue which holds society together"
Is it? I rather thought it was fear.
Surely trust is the glue which holds business partnerships together?
The discussion of the nation state as an entity capable of exhibiting emotional sentiments such as "trust" is a bit far fetched. Surely the nation state is too large, too diverse in classes and ethnicities, to exhibit such a complex characteristic as trust?
Propagandists have traditionally built nations by creating artificial exhibitions of pride and fear, and then proclaiming that everybody within certain geographical boundaries can consider these emotions their own.
I don't see any evidence that propagandists seek to use trust in the same way, by I stand willing to be corrected.
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@ #32 Bulgaria has massive organised crime problems, so it's an exceptional case. Germany, France and Portugal (85% Catholic) still have strong national identities, to varying degrees, despite immigration; whereas in the UK we've been advised, for at least 10 years, that British traditions are regressive and should be swept aside for a new heterogeneous future.
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I would be interested to know how urbanised each of these countries are, and what the level of mobility of their residents is. It's probably easier to trust people when you've grown up in the village you live and work in and know everyone by name. Probably harder somewhere like London where many of your day to day interactions will be with people who you'll never see again.
I also agree the questions are too simplified and polarising.
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4, 6 and 24 - totally agree . I fall into the 50+ group and I'm sorry that I know very few DECENT LOVELY people whether at work, shops or in the street, its all self-self-self and I find it worrying.
Recently I wrote to small company to point out they'd spelt the fruit blackcurrant wrong on their website, apologising of course if they were American. It wasn't a large website but I was asked WHERE? Surely the designer of the webpage could find it??!! And form then on nothing. Does anyone ever care anymore about standards? It seems not.
After over 30 years in the Civil Service I recently left, broken and shattered . So many played the system and bosses were too frightened to sort them out. I carried so many rubbish colleagues, worked so hard and got nowhere as I didn't have the "PC" credentials used nowadays. And NO I haven't left with a massive pay-off and have to find work for the 10 years before I get state pension - thanks Labour for that! AND I earned less than the National average . Wake up public and get the facts before you continually pick on people "as a whole" - but then I guess with our media its very difficult.
Only our media could waste 3 pages on a Treasury party when kids are dying, some of our hospitals are in a mess and most people want to emigrate thanks to the mess Labour has got us into. In every occupation you find situations like this, whether they choose to knock nurses, footballer, city kids etc - concentrate on the important issues. And when they talk about how the credit crunch affects "families" think of how it affects us ALL especially singles.
Maybe we need to get our backbone back and start telling Europe and the US to go away, we have enough problems of our own. Even our Mayor allows everyone to party except the English on 23rd April. Why do we continually put up with it?. People should integrate here more with us, not us bowing to "foreigners" all the time.
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expatinnetherlands on the contrary I disagree. I stopped sending my children to Dutch schools because of the constant acrimonious attitude I received for my children being bilingual in English/Dutch across 2 schools, not to mention oversubscribed, lack of PE facilities, the children must teach themselves attitude(!?). I certainly felt being a minority citizen, concern and understanding from the locals is one attribute that I have never seen and I've lived here for 10 years. It is also true that Dutch living in the border areas with Belgium are sending their children to school there rather than in Holland.
As for the environment, they've already destroyed most of it! Yes of course they encourage recycling but they make it very difficult to obtain tax breaks and grants for private alternative energy sources especially if you live in the wrong area.
Unfortunately my experience as an expat living in Holland is not isolated, a great many people I know have either gone back to the UK or is planning to within the next year. Many of my Dutch friends are also eying up foreign shores and it's estimated about a third of younger Dutch nationals also wanting to leave the country.
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As I come in this group I would say we knew what we see is rubbish and that all it is blinding people with science. Britian has more old folks homes which are full of white usually women you can not work mind husband and children and dog and someone who does not pay their way, we are not a race that has much empathy for those who are not media sold like children and the old Britain sells youth and never ending youth were an middle aged man like Jonathan Ross is seen as the icon of good taste and no one is a cook any more but a drama queen chief were we do not eat food we watch it being made on the television were the Govenment is run by the mad and the media has no imagination because it is being run by groups of racists we know that it will all fall down and then who will be blamed.
Britian is a island with the small island mentality and because people have tow weeks away a year does not make the Europeans, we still murder our children and women and get prison sentences based on what the judge wants who in most case they should be in a home for the Bewildered . We have soldiers fighting in countries for what it is not our country nor our oil so they are fighting for what? Were will it end in war, and so those of us who have been through war or do not want to get involved chose not too. As this time you are dealing with consumers and all they know is the price of everything and the value of nothing.
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Not convinced about links to income/happiness - is that the same as belonging/trust? I could easily imagine living in a very rich society where no one liked or trusted each other.
The actually survey may be realistic about perceptions in the disunited kingdom. Personally I don't feel any real sense of connection to the people around me like I used to.
Certainly not this 'nation' - It doesn't look or feel like anything I recognise.
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A question I'd like to be answered is whether people being active in volunteer organizations like Scouting/Guiding, the Church or one of the many others have the same Trust and Belonging scores as people who aren't.
Posts like numbers 48 and 49 above suggest being actively involved in a community or network could make an important difference.
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I certainly don't trust 'nef' the the new economics foundation (they don't like capital letters) that conducted this survey.
NEF appear to be a typical left-wing winge-tank that thrives on (mostly) public funding.
Their motto: "We believe in a new economy based on social justice, environmental sustainability and collective well-being" says it all really.
Most of their conclusions involve penalising ordinary taxpayers - and commissioning more studies.
Parasites.
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54 skips across a lot of detail. Germany has very powerful self-identity, but it's what we would call regional - Bavarians do not get on with Berliners, for example, but both would say they had very high levels of T&B. nonetheless, the Germans consider themselves "publically multicultural", which essentially means they are masters of the private comment.
I do agree however, that the Germans have done enormously better when it comes to self-identity: having only tiny remnants of empire and a very distinct language is a strong difference between them, and us, of course. They also treat their TV networks quite differently from us, possibly because their concepts of work and socialising and relationships are far more rigidly formalised - by comparison, the Brits still feel like a lot of naughty schoolboys.
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It's because bewildering numbers of people in the UK spend their lives seeking out the holy grail of...
'being offended'
The new goldrush.. where there's offence to be taken, they'll be sweeping across the plain to take it. "Me next, no me, I want to take offence... it's my turn! Prince Harry... what word?.. Wow, there must be bucket loads of offence just waiting for me to take.. yipppeee!!"
I'm an unfriendly UK person, simply because I hate these idiots.
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We have had some bad Governments but between Blair and Brown we reach rock bottom. They should both be prosecuted for (Treason) ruining Great Britain. No trust left except for own Family.
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No60#
Makes no difference at all doing work for groups, communities and such as your not doing it for the country, your not doing it for the councils ,your not doing it for anyone other than the people who are directly involved.
All of the above have been run into the ground by government so its not a sense of trust and belonging its a sense of survival.
Read up on the Wirral and the devastation our councils are causing in the name of development. taking away trust and belonging as they take away our services and communities.
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All this starts at the top, where we have the most venal, corrupt, mendacious, self-serving bunch of politicians imaginable. This includes the opposition, the hangers-on, the advisers, lobbyists, PR merchants, lobby journalists etc etc.
Just listen to any of Brown's utterances - lying comes as second nature to him, he'll insist day is night if it gets him through an interview without having to admit to any errors or weaknesses.
From any angle you care to mention they're a disaster, so is it any wonder that we are a nation of such selfish, uncertain, insecure people when we're led by such a shower?
Trust and belonging come from strong associations with a set of shared beliefs, with a tribe, race, religion or nation with whom we feel an affinity. We have become such a feckless, shifting society, where we're told that we should not celebrate our Christian or cultural heritage because it's racist, and to embrace multi-culturalism even if that splinters our communities and leads to ghettos of isolation.
This I believe is the greatest mistake we have made as a nation in 50 years - to sacrifice ourselves on the bonfire of liberal guilt. Walk down any of the mean streets in
our provincial towns and you'll see evidence of the frustration and fear of people who no longer feel part of a community.
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Re 65: I do think it'll make a difference, as being part of any group of people you are directly involved with will generate a network of trust and belonging within this group.
Doing nothing except blaming the government for all wrongs and/or complaining about it and/or feeling helpless as an individual will probably only make the situation worse.
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#61
Finally someone reads between the lines on this! As with all these surveys that Mark loves to trumpet about in his blog, they are generally compiled and written with an end result in mind in order to promote a certain agenda.
I would say that as usual I would take these surveys and statistics with a pinch of salt but it would be a waste of perfectly good salt.
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We run a very successful community group and we are involved in a lot of other community signposting, trust me as fast as we work to make a change the government and councils pull the rug from under us.
to have trust and belonging you must have faith and inspiration. neither of which are installed at any level of society now.
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I've been fortunate enough to be out of the UK since 2005 with my wife and 2 kids with the last 3 years spent in Milan. Currently in West Africa.
I really think the whole problem comes down to a few basic things
1. UK people have forgotten, can't be bothered and really don't wish to spend anymore time than necessary communicating.
2. The different generations just don't know how to talk to eachother never mind trying to trust each other.
3. No one has the time anymore, what exactly is everyone rushing around for?
Each visit back to England has only confirmed this horrid background feeling of anger and resentment between people in the UK.
I am slowly getting around the idea that i will never return to England to retire. It no longer has any attraction in terms of social structure for people like me.
Try getting away for a few years and return for a week or so. You will see exactly what I mean.
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This is amusing and, I think, relevant to your blog.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_teen_up_to_something
(Because I don't know if hyperlinks show up here, it's an Onion article titled "Area Teen Up To Something.")
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Hatred of immigrants can very often depend on the definition of 'immigrant'.
An immigrant family was recently driven out of its home in Southmead, Bristol. 'Immigrant', that is, from Lawrence Weston, an adjacent suburb of Bristol.
In many major cities 'postcode wars' are fought on the streets by the 'yoof', often with fatal results.
I believe that the climate of fear sponsored by both major political parties and the media seeps down to the bottom and produces violence and paranoia.
If it's not terrorism, it's global warming; if it's not that it's AIDS or SARS; if we survive those, we're all going to die of obesity...
The result is a society on the edge of panic; bad for us but great for controlling politicians and sensation-hungry media.
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If it come to measuring well being how can anyone living in the worlds financial capital a country that has profited from rip off, that reveres the greedy, the bully and the arrogant have any comfort or feel good about themselves.
They ether long for things to be as they were in the [good old days] or seeks to move were the [grass is greener].
We live in little insulated islands, communicate only by technology and lack a real sense of community.
Is there hope yes but not doing the same thing as we have always done and hoping it will be different.
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When exactly was this golden age? In the cotton mills of Lancashire in the 1780s? In the 1800s when millions of people were driven to emigrate to America, Canada, Australia? In the 1920s and 30s during the National Strike and the depression. There was a short period in the 1950s when people felt contented after the worst effects of WW2 had been washed away. But the curiously unknown fact is that more people have emigrated from Britain over the past 400 years than from any other country 20 million souls have felt so little part of the community that they left these shores.
I think it is great to live in Britain. Been shopping in Bristol and Bath today. Met lots of friendly people. was served by lots of friendly people. lots of curteous car drivers. Haven't talked to my neighbours - we help each other out if there is a need, but we have no interests in common. I do lots of voluntary work, but don't do it to help the community. The whole concept seems to me to be a bit of tosh. I just like lots of individuals who co-operate when there is a shared need. When there isn't a shared need why have we all got to become close knit?
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On The Economic Causes of the Trust and Belonging Defecit.
Does anyone thing that the structural changes in the UK's society brought about by the impact of the way in which the economy has been managed in the last thirty years have anything to do with the lack of Trust and Belonging deficiency?
Let me be succinct: If the structure of society is dependent of the formation of stable households, which I believe has been shown to be the case, and even if it has not let me assume it has, then if it becomes progressively more economically burdensome for one part of society to form stable households then that part will form fewer stable households.
So the poor on welfare can get housing and support as it is paid for by the state as they have always been able to do so. But the lower part of the next group of the working class have found that even with two incomes then cannot find sufficient funds for a family. The top strata has always been same and has remain constant and small.
(Further there is a negative incentive for stable households in the welfare dependent as they get reduced income if they are a couple.)
Booming house prises further squeezed the middle sector so fewer children are produced from stable homes in this sector.
The destruction of the stability of jobs also substantially contributed to this problem and I remind readers that this is something that the UK has been 'proud of' for quite a time - expressed as labour force flexibility.
So we have a situation that directly equates increase in unaffordability of houses and labour force flexibility with a reduction in belonging and trust. This was predictable and even understood by the Thatcher and subsequent administrations and yet nothing effective has been done about it.
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Trust is based on experience. If we never receive genuine help from a stranger we don't learn to trust anyone.
Question: How many of us have walked past someone in difficulty and thought "someone should help them"? All of us - that's how many.
The Good Samaritan has been mentioned - the victim got beaten, robbed, ignored THEN helped. Well, if more of us got off our butts and helped FIRST the rest wouldn't happen.
So before we complain that WE don't trust anyone - perhaps we should think about how trustworthy WE come over. Maybe we need to stop moaning that everyone behaves to us like we do to them.
Go on - break away from the herd - help someone. Hold a door open, offer directions, help someone carry something heavy, maybe just smile. But most of all, don't wait to be asked.
OK some people may react gruffly, others may even be rude. But at least try.
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I am 53 and left Britain age 27 for some adventure (that's my nature) and eventually settled in Spain because I liked it.
Fortunately I had a very well-balanced upbringing from 2 imperfect but dedicated parents who succeeded in converting 4 very different children into healthy, caring, responsible AND individualistic adults. They never "blamed" imperfect society or anyone else for whatever - just set the rules and we got on with the blossoming into...
I suspect that the only truly happy/content people in UK, or outwith, are those who actually feel they have any control over their own lives and indeed exercise that control.
This has little to do with money (other than oviously being able to cover basic needs - and being able to distinguish what they are), and far more to do with having a balanced ego and self-responsibility.
If UK institutions (including the BBC, banks, government et al) do not lead with balance, moderation, intelligence, professional integrity and respect, then I guess only those who have parents who exhibit those characteristics will ever enjoy trust and belonging.
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Learnt over the past week that several of my long time friends around the world have been banned by the BBC from posting their comments on Gaza and giving their honest opinions on the BBC's position re aid to Gaza.
I also read Mark Thompson's opus on the BBC's Gaza appeal position - a classic piece of tortured logic which demonstrates that the BBC is delusional and influenced by "chokes" within the organization.
We have started a count of exiled BBCers and hope that I do not become one because of my comments, as I do enjoy reading the differing views on the blogs - dialogue and openness being the only way to resolve differences.
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I think the media has to consider its role in this breakdown of trust. I am not, of course, against the media - the very fact that I am able to contribute this comment is a tacit acknowledgment of my appreciation of that profession.
However, the fact that newspapers, for example, tend to home in on the most extreme cases of abuse, give (perhaps, in most cases, unintentionally) the impression to the general public that there's a pervert or murderer round every corner. In our culture it is very difficult to write about good news without it sounding weak and sentimental.
There are also social problems stemming from both ends of the political spectrum. The nanny state has engendered a work-shy underclass. On the other hand, the excesses of capitalism have bred bitterness and anger, as we have seen recently.
But at the heart of society is a deep-seated philosophical problem concerning, frankly, what life is actually about. I don't want to use this blog as a platform to push my own personal views on this question, but, let's face it, if there's no ultimate meaning to life, then "living for #1" seems the only logical option, quite irrespective of social and political factors.
This is why I think that much of the cynicism towards what is simplistically categorised as "religion", is not helpful to the necessary debate concerning fundamental questions of life. In our society, there should be a lot more respect for those who hold different views and more time should be spent trying to understand why different people hold particular views rather than just mockingly dismissing them as "believers of fairy tales" etc. (as is so often the case in discussions on the internet). On the other hand, those of us who are "religious" (for want of a better word) should make more effort to understand the concerns of those who reject ideas we hold dear. Perhaps then we might, as a people, learn from each other constructively, rather than perpetuating the popular tendency to categorise and caricature each other, which only further inflames this general atmosphere of mistrust.
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The nation-destroying marxists have done their work well in this country.Just like they did in the Eastern bloc during the cold war.
"As we get richer"?
From memory, 1 in 4 "economically inactive" working age adults,and 1 in 3 households dependant on benefits.Oh yes,we are so RICH!
This country is being eaten away by traitorous maggots who`s first allegiance is international finance and globalism.
I urge people to do some research into the "charity" COMMON PURPOSE.
It`s a fifth-column dedicated to demoralising the British people so we will accept complete loss of sovereignty to Europe.It`s "graduates" are in all the tiers of government,business,and local services.
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The people of the UKSSR don't trust their government because it is a dictatorship of the elite, by the elite, and for the elite. It has an entitled monarchy as its head of state, a classified titled aristocricy which runs it upper legislative body, an established church, and its lower house is ruled by either of two parties who when in office have absolute power over both legislative and executive branches. Those at the bottom have no say in how the country is run. They voted for a trade agreement and woke up one day to find they were in a supranational nation state where even their unelected representatives there play a minor role and cannot dictate policy on their behalf. They were told 25,000 Poles would migrate to Britain and woke up one day to find there were 600,000 of them. Well at least the pipes don't leak anymore. They woke up one day to find their meat was tainted by foot and mouth disease and when they were reassured about that being fixed, that the meat was tainted again this time by mad cow disease, all the result of government allowing flithy agricultural practices to poison them. They were told their economy was in good condition, then one day they were told their banks were all bankrupt and every spare farthing would be needed to bail them out or the entire nation would collapse. Their taxes are high but they are told the money is spent on their behalf. Yet when they need a medical operation, they could wait for months on a waiting list and must survive in hospitals that are so filthy, if they don't die of the malady they came in with, they could become infected from the dirt and die of that. Is it any wonder that 10% have gotten so fed up they've left the country to live elsewhere while the other 90% keeps as drunk as it can whenever it can so that it doesn't have to face its plight. It has allowed hundreds of thousands of people who can only be callled "aliens" from alien cultures such as Pakistan's to enter the country and live there without being assimilated. The entire country blundered into fooling itself that indifference and isolation is the same as tolerence. Now it sees it has allowed a dangerous enemy within to be born and doesn't know how to change it or even protect itself from it. As a result there is a TV camera on every street corner watching everyone in the country. And you ask why the population is not trusting? Trust must be earned. British society isn't even perceptive enough to understand that. All of the government's words have been the same tired empty rhetoric the population has heard for decades. Why should they believe anything it says at this point? If I were a Brit, I'd leave to...or stay drunk for the rest of my life if I couldn't. BTW, things are no better on the continent. In fact they are even worse to the point where many come to Britain to escape their own homelands and by EU rules, there is no stopping them. Some European superstate that has turned out to be. More like a stuperstate.
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I certainly wouldn't trust anybody who was as full of hatred as many of those who have posted comments here. I wouldn't like to feel that I belonged to them in any way either.
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I am afraid that the trust has gone out of this country. The whole trust thing has been removed from politics by the Labour party and on the back of this lead most people seem to be in it for them selves.
Lead by the child protection most people are not trusted to be anywhere near children, men in particular, and thus a wedge has been driven into soctiey.
I for one will now not approach any distressed Woman or child due to this attitude whick can lead to being under public investigation with no right of reply or for that matter naming the person who makes the allegation.
No, the UK is in the thrall of a PC lead decline and until the government gives people the respect that it fails to do and the right to both defend themselves and others this country is on the slippery slope to anarchy.
I would like to sell up and move to a country where individual rights are supported but the present government has presided over the complete failure of the housing market that was started with the HIPS and has continued as stealth taxes take more and more from people.
The UK is finished as a place to live and the only people wanting to be here are Eastern Europeans who can live cheap ofr a while and send home 6 years pay (relative to their home) in any one year.
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In other words: we're all Thatcher's children now.
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Come on, just go and look at the actual results. On four out of the eight categories the UK comes above the European average, on one it is roughly equal and the other three slightly below. So the headline is UK just about the same level of perceived well-being as other European countries. It's not much of a story is it?
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re: # 57 Ilah2001.
Sorry that you had some negative experiences in the Netherlands - mine were mainly positive, even as far as kids at school, facilities etc, are concerned.
I love being able to let my kids cycle to school on safe cycle routes. In the UK I would worry far more about youngsters cycling in traffic.
I also like the family mentality in the Netherlands, I feel that people here are a little more traditional that way - more extended family situations, more family involvement with growing kids, and "anonymous" present giving at Saint Nicholas where it's more about the effort than the value of the gift (poems accompanying the present, sometimes an elaborate personal packaging etc.).
The UK seems far more bothered about profits.
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Jung asserts that the experience of the Sacred and Holy is a fundamental requirement of the self. To deny it brings spiritual decay; to embrace it illuminates the soul with meaning.
The decilne in the nations spiritual life and the increase in materialism could well be the reason for this malady.
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Imo, people seem to misjudge healthy, informed and intelligent cynicism for mistrust.
We, in the UK, live in an era of ever increasing open-government and also an era of the power of open blogging (by open I mean easily accessible by all with an opinion they wish to express) in which, rightly everyone in public life is under constant scrutiny. That, to me is a very good thing.
Thus I have a high amount of trust that if someone in public life puts a big foot wrong, that their chances of getting away with "it" are immeasurably less than they would have been, say around 10 years ago. Today we have laws that can protect whistleblowers, for example.
A society I trust is one in which I have a say, an opportunity to have my voice more properly heard. Today I have that as a basic right enabled largely via the Internet, and tomorrow I will even more rights too.
Do I feel that I belong? Damned right I do. Not because the government or the media sends out palliative propagandist messages, but because I and others have their say.
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