[prof-dr-ir]

The second reference you gave lists four opinion pieces, one culinary review whose tongue-in-cheek comment it misinterprets, and one actual news article about the impact of austerity in Britain.

That one news article was a subject of intense discussion at the time which quickly became politicized. A decent overview of the discussion can be found at

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/business/prescot-makes-...

For what it's worth, I wholly subscribe to the OP's viewpoint that the NY times' reports from France have been subpar in recent months - in my view they have been too Americo-Centric and do not sufficiently recognize the different value system in France. But I have often been positively surprised by the paper's reporting on UK issues (and on Brexit in particular).