Anthony Browne says the French model has failed. Britain must now show the way forward — and save the European Union by her example
Brussels
You might feel safe reading your Spectator, confident that you will die in a bed, but I can reveal that yet another world war is about to break out across Europe, that genocide is stalking the land, and Islamist terrorists are about to blow up innocents by the trainload.
I know this is going to happen, because Dutch MEPs warned of it in a TV commercial. Archive footage of Jews being herded on to trains, of mass graves from the Srebrenica massacre, and bodies lying on tracks after the 11 March train bombing in Madrid were used to warn the Dutch what would happen again if Europe didn’t get its constitution.
But before you head for the bomb shelter, remember that Euro-enthusiasts are not infallible. They said the countries that joined the euro would boom, but the only thing that has exploded is unemployment. They warned us that the British economy would collapse if we didn’t join the euro. We didn’t, and the British economy is in the best shape ever. So now that the constitution is being killed off, we can probably be sure of peace in our time.
In the real world, the only connection between Hitler and the constitution is the way that referendums are abused to give a veneer of legitimacy to power-grabs. Until now, there has been little pretence that they are genuine consultations; only one answer has been allowed, the one supporting a policy that has already been decided.
The first reaction this time was straight from the old school, with Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU’s current President, insisting that Non really meant Oui, and that countries which voted wrongly would just have to vote again to get the ‘right answer’.
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