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R. N. Thorpe’s article (March 2018) states productivity in France is higher than the UK and that the economy is growing faster.

How to measure productivity? Output per worker?

To measure the output of that worker, he or she has to be in employment.

As for economic growth: from 2008-2017 the average GDP growth of France per annum was 0.6% and the UK 1.1%. In 2017, France was 1.9% and the UK 1.8%.

RN Thorpe states the NHS is underfunded. In 2017, the Commonwealth Fund judged the NHS the ‘best, safest and most affordable’ healthcare system of the top 11 in the world.

As for a ‘deteriorating social fabric’, I can find no statistics. Maybe RN Thorpe has some.

Matthew Watson, Isère