Britain’s sluggish stockmarket

IF BRITAIN’S TWO truly world-beating exports are entertainment and finance, 2005 was a big year. Its bestselling album was “X&Y” by Coldplay, a British rock band. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” sold more copies in its first 24 hours than any novel before it. “Peppa Pig”, a children’s television programme set to become so popular that American parents would complain it was giving their children British accents, made its transatlantic debut.