Personally I'm not a fan of the word 'best'. Dan Carter was the 'best' fly half not so long ago, now the talk is that Sexton is, come the World Cup it'll be someone else.
I think England are the team on the rise. They probably have a lot more going for them in terms of depth and youth. I'll also add that England are a lot more like-able under Lancaster... he's a well grounded man and he's brought that to their team. That being said, Joe Schmidt is a lot more like-able than Declan Kidney too, the latter playing the cute whore too much with the media.
Can we beat England, of course we can.. as easily as they can beat us. That's the great thing about the 6 Nations.. you really have 4 teams capable of beating each other on any given day. I think if the French could get a logical and rational thinking coach who would pick their best 15, they'd be a serious, serious team.
I wouldn't begrudge England or any team the success that good teams deserve.