http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/07/25/the-u-k-s-return-to-pre-crisis-growth-the-numbers/
While the economic performance of the past five years have been awful, it is worth noting that the UK is expected to achieve the fastest growth amongst advanced economies this year:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2014/update/02/pdf/0714.pdf
Meanwhile, France is headed in the opposite direction.
What is wrong with France? Everything, according to the natives.
A fascinating piece from Der Spiegel:
Meanwhile, some French elites are fleeing to Portugal to avoid high taxation:
“Under Portugal’s so-called non-habitual-resident program, foreign pensioners who come to live in the country may have their pension income exempt from taxes as long as it’s paid from a foreign source. France, meanwhile, only taxes its residents. “This means that the pension income may end up not being taxed at all,” said Luis Filipe Sousa, a tax manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Lisbon.”