Maggie Appleton

Brilliant and Thorough Infographic on Britain since 1997. Excerpts:

Richer, fatter, living longer, more indebted, drunker, better connected, politically disillusioned: there’s no metric that can describe whether we are happier or living better lives after 13 years of Labour. But there are plenty to show how we have changed during a period of fulsome spending, borrowing and technological transformation. Take health. Where innovation and cash have most force—such as in treating circulatory diseases or reducing waiting lists—mortality has declined significantly. Elsewhere, however, lifestyles have tugged us the other way. Policy and spending have brought down smoking, road accidents, cancer and infant deaths; but obesity, diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases have risen.

In digital terms, 1997 is a prehistoric date—a time before Google. We have never been better connected to each other and the world than we are today, and our lives have been accelerated and augmented by mobile phones, broadband and new media. Despite our digital literacy, however, Britain has stalled in the development and manufacture of technology—a trend aligned with our decline as a manufacturing power, and the swelling of the service sector at the expense of more tangible innovation.

There is another paradox in our new social landscape. The nation is devolved into Scottish, Welsh and British parliaments, while a mayor presides over London. Yet on our streets there has been a loss of distinctiveness: we have fewer pubs, independent shops, post offices and social clubs, but more supermarkets and chains. Local newspapers are vanishing, as are local services.

Britain’s population is more global too. The highest ever peacetime levels of immigration have shored up our young population, birth rates and labour force. But the net gain of more than 3m non-Britons has also fuelled an anxious debate over national identity.

Is Britain becoming a “broken” nation? The verdict is mixed. Political disillusionment and fear of crime have increased, yet crime itself is down almost across the board, while spending on education and health are at record highs.

Internationally, we have engaged in two distant wars while diminishing as a global powerhouse. The economy of China outstrips us by many hundreds of billions more than a decade ago. Socially, we are slightly less equal. The tax burden has shifted in favour of the poorest at the expense of the richest, but the gap between them has grown.

The Britain of 2010 has an ageing population; and the gulf between young and old has never been greater. From hopes of employment and pensions to home ownership, the future can look bleak for 2010’s children. Yet they will also live longer, own and consume more, and enjoy more diverse leisure and job opportunities than any previous generation. Loss, sometimes, goes hand in hand with gain.