I made a modest contribution to the hatefest and followed it by a  reference to EuroTrib.

It's true all this focuses on France, not on Ireland, which FlatHead thought was the right kind of country to compare to France and Germany.

Perhaps it's worth noting, first off, that FriedEgg manages to speak of Ireland's economic take-off without once mentioning its membership of the European Union and the attendant benefits. To hear him, the Irish just decided to get fired more easily, which explains why US corporations are investing in Ireland, (which explains all the rest...)

And no mention of history. That the Irish Republic was, forty or so years ago, an agrarian country with next to no industry and a fairly low standard of living, deserted by generations of emigrants and depressed by centuries of English colonialism, and that comparisons between a situation like that and the situation of major industrial powers like France and Germany are, to say the least, shaky, if not useless, is also left unmentioned.

But FlatEarth is ever undeterred. Anything goes. He's a disgrace to what used to be a good newspaper.