This magazine has a good record of opposing the centralising treaties of the EU. Alone in the media, The Spectator came out in 1985 against the Single European Act, which marked the first big expansion of the qualified majority vote. With a growing pack at our heels, we then opposed the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, and of course we are pleased that this federalising ‘constitution’ has been rejected by the French. Our jubilation is alloyed, however, by an embarrassing reality. The French people unquestionably did the right thing. They did it, alas, for the wrong reasons.
The French Non was largely a protest against the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ economic model, when the truth is that the constitution goes no further in entrenching free markets than do existing treaties; but then the French weren’t interested in the text. They wanted to register a squawk of irritation against Chirac and against the way they see France and Europe going.
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