OPINION - Is Britain doomed to terminal decline? It all depends on how you feel

Are we in a state of irreversible decline? What’s the reason, what can be done about it and, if there is a solution, who in earth is going to put into action?” So begins episode six of Chris Morris’s magisterial satire Brass Eye, filmed in 1996 and broadcast on Channel 4 the following year, when Labour ended almost 19 years of Conservative government.