The article is fairly misleading. Despite claims to the contrary the list of facts is nothing more than "disconnected observations". They lack any serious context or nuance. For every single one it's possible to ask whether the observation is a fair comparison or something that should be the case. Take the number of second homes relative to France. Is more second homes a good thing? Take electricity production, might we not argue that the UK uses energy more efficiently rather than lagging what other countries generate?