The first courses in our training were identical, and so of course I have to agree with Menzie (since that was it for me!) writing about what explains lackluster U.K. performance:

I believe the data are not puzzling from an open economy perspective but that might reflect my training; deficient aggregate demand and relatively high inflation can occur when there is a large imported share in GDP.

via Econbrowser: Thinking about the Double Dip Recession in the UK.