As a leftwing, longtime Guardian reader, I tend to be unsurprised, if depressed, by your daily reports on worsening conditions in most aspects of life in the UK since the financial crisis of 2008, especially in the period dominated politically by the Conservatives: worsening conditions and rewards at work; cuts in public services; attacks on welfare; increases in housing costs; crisis in prisons; increasing inequality etc.
Yet this week (Brexit watch, 29 November) you report a rare piece of good news: a study from the Office for National Statistics that shows a significant improvement in general happiness and life satisfaction in England over the last five years. It would be interesting to read some discussion of this remarkable discrepancy.
Christopher Slater
Alton, Hampshire
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