Quelques paroles de modeste Britanniques sur la France

Pour nous rasséréner, voici quelques bonnes paroles piquées dans le courrier du lecteur du Guardian du 1er juin, avec comme sujet : cette épouvantable, insupportable et incorrigible France.

« Martin Kettle (“France refuses to grow up”, May 31) argues that the European social model represents the unworkable past and neoliberal globalisation the inevitable future. But with its decisive no vote, the French left continues its unfashionable resistance to the Thatcherite argument that “there is no alternative”. They should be applauded, not denounced as a nation of political children. Economic liberalisation is not some teleological force of destiny above and beyond politics; it is a conscious political and economic project being crafted by nation states, corporations and international bodies in the interests of a global plutocracy.

» What is remarkable is that the French recognise it as such — they have never bought into the myth of inevitability. The chief attraction of the EU for the left was that it offered a bulwark against a global free market, of sufficient size to enable the social model to continue as a powerful economic, ethical and philosophical alternative to neoliberalism. If the EU is to be turned into merely another instrument of global economic orthodoxy, then the left, clearly, want nothing to do with it.

» Richie Nimmo, Manchester »

« It has become the conventional wisdom in Britain that France is sclerotic and hostile to change. But France continues to enjoy rates of labour productivity — however you measure it — that are as much as 25% higher than in Britain. It is also the net beneficiary of more inward investment. And, contrary to popular belief, the level of youth unemployment in France is actually less than in Britain, mainly because more young French people stay on longer in education. Whatever the explanation for the result of the French referendum, it does not stem from a widespread national resistance to modernisation.

» It is the Blair government's determination to undermine the social market model that has become the single biggest obstacle to any further progress in the EU. Let's hope Mr Blair's attempt to try and impose his neoliberal dogmas during the British EU presidency is treated with the contempt it deserves.

» Robert Taylor, London »

« Like many of us, I suspect, the French are simply tired of unpopular grandstanding visions being imposed on them by out-of-touch Euro functionaries. The people were consulted and have spoken; it is just unfortunate that many of Europe's politicians dislike their reply.

» Mike Seymour, Bonn, Germany »

Mis en ligne le 1er juin 2005 à 08H00