Britain isn’t broken despite what the headlines say, we’ve never had it so good - Bill Carmichael

Everything seems to be falling apart in what the tabloids have called “Broken Britain”, and it is easy to believe that ‘we’ve never had it so bad’, to turn a famous quote on its head.

So, are things really as bad as they seem? The short answer is no. In fact we are incredibly lucky to be living in modern times when most of us are healthier and richer than our grandparents’ or any previous generation.

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan came in for a lot of ridicule for the sunny optimism of his “we’ve never had it so good” speech in 1957, but what he said was undoubtedly true then, and is even more true today.

Take for example the topical issue of water quality and the campaign to stop the water companies dumping sewage into the rivers and onto beaches.

I support stronger action, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that there have been massive improvements in water quality over the decades.

In Victorian times, for example, most of central London dumped raw sewage directly into the Thames and its tributaries.

The resulting smell - quickly nicknamed The Great Stink - became so bad in 1858 that the Palace of Westminster had to hang curtains soaked in lime chloride along the river to protect MPs and Peers from the appalling stench.

How about air quality, another topical issue with London and other cities introducing low emission zones? Again, improvements in air quality have been spectacular.

As recently as December 1952 the Great Smog of London - a deadly “pea-souper” combining fog and smoke from thousands of coal fires - is believed to have killed an estimated 12,000 people in little more than a single weekend.

How about poverty around the world? In 1820 an estimated 75 per cent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty, unable to find a place to live or keep themselves fed and warm.

Today, thanks to the economic growth provided by free market capitalism, fewer than 9 per cent of the world’s population live in the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty. Still too many, for sure, but a stunning improvement.

How about equality? Slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world (although still widespread behind closed doors in Africa and the Middle East).

Survey after survey demonstrates the UK is one of the most tolerant and welcoming countries in the world.

There have also been huge advances in the area of women’s rights, in the West at least, although of course more needs to be done to protect women and girls from violence and discrimination.

How about violence? Surely the modern world is more violent than in the idyllic past? No. As professor Steven Pinker put it: “Violence has declined by dramatic degrees all over the world in many spheres of behaviour: genocide, war, human sacrifice, torture, slavery and the treatment of racial minorities, women, children and animals.”

So with all this good news on offer, why are we all so terribly glum?

One theory, known as Mean World Syndrome, posits that people perceive the world to be more dangerous than it actually is, as a result of long-term exposure to negative stories in the media, causing increased fear, anxiety and pessimism.

And the climate catastrophism of environmental activists, who have been screaming in our face “You are all going to die” for the last 30 years, is also to blame.

I was brought up as part of a family of five in a two-bedroom terraced house with linoleum floors, no central heating and a back boiler behind the coal fire for hot water.

Women had it particularly hard in those days and I never knew one of my grandmothers - she died in childbirth before I was born. Both my grandfathers died of lung disease younger than the age that I am now.

I was lucky enough to be part of a loving and supportive family and I will forever be grateful. But the notion that things were somehow better back then is for the birds.

If you are alive today in modern Britain, you are one of luckiest people in human history.