Airstrip One

How Le Monde sees it: solidarity - 14th March 2003, 17.35

Marc Roche of Le Monde just proves that the French are living on another planet. He accuses Blair of insulting Chirac via the Sun. The last time a foreign leader had problems with the British press was the Saudis. We had to explain a free press to them. It seems that the French may need the same lesson.

The spiteful Sun, which last month called the French head of state a "worm", seems now to be running Downing Street. Tony Blair has obviously reached the very depths of despair to have to resort to such debasing rhetoric against a country that most Britons love.

Roche lovingly rubs salt into the rift.

However it all ends, this row will leave marks. A healthy rivalry between France and Britain has turned ugly, as if, from the British side, hundreds of years of war are still not over. Maybe it is sour grapes: according to the latest statistics, France is poised to overtake Britain in the ranks of the largest economies.

French nationalism now seems to involve a suicidal collective responsibility for their government, whatever the political persuasion. This is what they mean by the European value, solidarity. It brooks no dissent.

Via Instapundit