Is Britain broken?

With the British general election campaign expected to begin soon the opposition Conservative Party has been attacking the governing Labour Party for its handling of social issues.

Mr Cameron has been using the slogan "broken Britain" to describe a mixture of crime, youth drunkenness and fractured families to characterise what he sees as a national malaise.

But is Britain really broken?

The statistics suggest that many things are actually improving. Crime for instance is falling by some measures. Child homicides have dropped significantly since the 1970s.

The BBC's Rob Broomby has visited a project in Bradford in northern England which the Conservatives say inspired some of their thinking.

The BBC's Rob Watson visited Bristol in the south-west of England.

First broadcast 23 March 2010