OxBlog

Comments:

that's a very nice article mate. full stop!

P

# posted by

I guess I can see why you think he's got to tackle the unions; I'd like some sense of how to evaluate his chances for success. I'd also love it if you'd try to be the respondent-to-Martin-Wolf that deLong is asking for at I Do Wish Somebody Would Respond to Martin Wolf re Sarkozy :

"What does the election of Nicolas Sarkozy mean for France, the European Union and the world? The answer will depend on whether what now emerges is a European France, a French Europe or a France set against Europe...."

Partly it makes sense, but then he speaks of Europeans who say that "George W. Bush has made it very clear that Europe needs, for its own safety, to start acting like a superpower. And I suspect Sarkozy is of that faction." This appears to be coming from a different France, perhaps a different Earth, than the one involved in your "goalposts" article...or is it?

# posted by

Tom Myers : 5:45 PM

Few comments on the article:

France's "socialist perks." These, presumably, include such things as government-paid medical care, unemployment insurance, pension rights and support for those who are for one reason or another (most often physical or mental illness) unable to support themselves. These are not "perks," like the stock options a corporate CEO would receive as part of his/her generous compensation package. These are hard-fought rights, clawed from a parsimonious state/corporate structure by means of long, arduous social and political action spanning decades. But the article brushes them away like so many cobwebs.

It's not the typical output I'd expect from an Irishman, whose country has been ravaged by foreign invaders for 800 years, and whose compatriots have battled back stubbornly, often violently, to restore their independence and freedom. The article is well-written, but rings false with me.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:58 AM

I would like to see Sarkozy offer some support, however, tangential, for the Americans in Iraq.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:15 PM