The recent stats on lower murder rates in London have prompted me to reflect on what is good about Britain, whih is so good that it appears the world wants to come here. Despite the awful Government we have seeking to wreck the economy and destroy family businesses, there are many things that are still good and there is a danger that negative sentiment becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is not to say that our Government haven’t done everything possible to destroy positive sentiment. And make no mistake, sentiment in the private sector is fundamentally important to economic success.

But the UK is now a sovereign state which can make its own decisions for good or ill. This is massively positive. We are no longer paying over £30billion a year to be a member of the EU, nor covering the cohesion funds of the Euro zone. Britain can choose its own immigration policy.

By and large we have free speech although it has to be fought for – well done to the Free Speech Union! For now we have have habeus corpus and trial by jury.

Although our measure of wealth, GDP per capita at PPP, is way too low and falling (38th in the world) the national GDP at parity still ranks the UK in the top nations, which gives us some power in an uncertain world.

When grouped with our kith and kin of similar nations – Canada, Australia and New Zealand – our colelctive GDP is behind only the USA and China. In a world of might is right, the natural order for millennia, this global reach is important.

We are the land of Adam Smith, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, George Orwell and other great philosophers of the economy and society. We are the beneficiaries of the Magna Carta, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which planted the seeds of the English Industrial Revolution, freeing mankind from slavery and creating the wealth and technology for human progress, enabling the pursuit of happiness life and liberty.

The following of Karl Marx by contrast has only ever produced misery. Why do we not teach this in schools? The people of Britain enjoy longer lives, less pain, more cures and fewer diseases. If we had good economic growth we could have much more still.

There are only another three years to go of our truly terrible Government. Perhaps less, let us hope. We can look forward to the future.

Britain has enjoyed a period of relative peace, ironically brought about by our willingness to fight for it, sometimes alone and to the benefit of the world.

We have the English language, the world language. The Common Law, now free again of European encumbrances. The City of London remains a global financial centre and is benefitting, as it has stated, from escaping the shackles of the EU.

On a practical level we are blessed with a green and pleasant land. A temperate climate free of a multitude of bugs, flies, snakes and predators.

We are able to produce the fruit of the land and for that which we cannot produce enough there is abundance in Australia, Canada and our other trading partners.

What is there not to like about Britain? If Yorkshire is God’s own county, Britain is God’s own country. But let us not forget that aside from our natural blessings, it has been hard-fought for and hard-won. It is not to be taken for granted we must be prepared to continue to fight for the things that make Britain great.

John Longworth is an entrepreneur and businessman, chairman of the Independent Business Network and a former MEP