Becoming French

Matthew Lynn, in a typically opinionated and wrong-headed piece on Bloomberg, thinks

The British economy is becoming increasingly French.

Why which he means

It will have a huge tax burden to carry, a state that is the dominant actor in the economy, and a system whose resources are managed more by some kind of national plan than the free hand of the market. The government is now explicitly emulating France, with its national champions.

Sadly this leaves out the good parts about the French economy: the generous welfare system; good education and health care; job security (at least for some); rational working hours for many. No, the UK isn't becoming French. It is becoming much worse: French for big companies, but American for ordinary workers. That's like having Italian railways and Swiss fashion.