All is not well in Britain. Last week the Children’s Society reported the results of a study of 15-year-olds’ life satisfaction, which has steadily declined over the past decade. The findings showed that British 15-year-olds had the lowest life satisfaction levels of 27 European countries.
In a 2023 report on global mental health, the UK ranked the second worst of 71 countries, with only Uzbekistan scoring lower. My own research also makes for grim reading: my co-author and I found a collapse in the mental health of the young, and especially young women, in the UK. Scotland looks especially bad. Meanwhile, there are millions of people of all ages on waiting lists for surgeries, GP services are in decline, dentists are scarce and social care is in disarray.
