Most major problems in the modern world are not matters of dispute as to goals, but means. We all wish health and happiness to (almost) everyone. The issue is how do we achieve it, and this in large measure comes down to numbers: how many people, how much will it cost, how long will it take, and so on.
Establishing the numbers should usually be the first step to formulating a solution. Only then is it sensible to try to make a judgement about which of competing options do we choose. Often this will turn out to be a judgement of the people principally affected, expressed in a democratic way by voting. In some matters, for example treaties legally binding on all citizens, choice between alternatives will properly require a vote of the whole nation in a referendum.
Britain Watch is determined to be as objective about the numbers as possible, bearing in mind that even official figures, from the National Statisitical Office (NSO), or the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for instance, are often based on sampling and inferences from other data. The International Labour force surveys for unemployment, and values given on VAT forms for imports and exports are examples of incomplete data used to estimate values for the whole country and its trade.
Some official figures, on both legal and illegal immigration for example, are even less reliable, being based on random sampling at the ports at irregular intervals without a clearly defined methodology. In such cases Britain Watch will offer its own figures with a declared methodology which readers can judge for themselves.
By contrast some, not all, scientific data and relationships are completely reliable for the purposes of human-scale calculation. Ignoring these data will simply lead to schemes which are literally impossible to realise or extravagantly expensive. The fields of energy and climate change offer several current examples of this where we hope readers will be able to judge for themselves.
The following sub-pages will gradually build up and store the data most relevant to the main categories of pages and posts on Britain Watch, updated and expanded where necessary from time to time.
This should help our readers engage with the important topics related to our survival as a major power in the free world:- security of our energy supplies with reference to environmental targets, jobs, industry, our balance of trade with the rest of the world, taxation, immigration, population change and ethnic balance, transport, education, freedom of speech, our relationships with other countries, and defence.
Some data will need updating from time to time and there may be some significant errors which readers are invited to correct (two significant figures only please).
NB: Some drawings and graphs may take a moment to become visible when you are scrolling down a page.
- See the following key data subsections:
- British History
- Energy and Emissions
- Immigration and Population (this page is currently under development)
- The Economy
- Trade and investment balances
Please note that material on this website is covered by the “Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988”. This means that material may be downloaded for personal study, but no part of it may be copied for publication elsewhere without written permission from the Britain Watch team. See Contact us.
Britain Watch is sponsored by PROSYMA RESEARCH LTD.