Straw sounds death knell for EU treaty
The Foreign Secretary was today announcing that Britain’s plans for a referendum to approve the EU constitution are to be put on hold
EU constitution: a French pig in a poke?
But at root was the voters’ resentment that those who ruled them didn’t listen to them. It was the eruption of the people power the rulers of Europe liked when it happened in places like the Ukraine. It wasn’t supposed to happen at home.
True to form, as soon as the voters gave the wrong answer, their rulers tried to discount them. Faced with the proof that he was out of touch with his own citizens, what did President Chirac do?
He replaced his prime minister with his crony Dominique de Villepin, who has never stood for elected office, is disliked in his own party and is about as people-friendly as Louis XIV on a bad day.
Elites from all political persuasions in Europe wanted the EU Constitution, a three hundred page behemoth filled with dense legalese, to pass. But the people read enough of it to see that it seriously limited the sovereignty of their nations, installed unelected rulers beholden to no one, and forced onerous regulations down everyone’s throats – so they voted it down. The elites are still stunned.