Break Out From Brussels: Europe was on its way to a bureaucratic prison camp. …

The Times [UK] ^ | June 6, 2005 | William Rees-Mogg

[quidnunc]

…Now it can choose a more attractive destination

First of all, the triumph. The treaty for a European constitution was a rotten treaty for a rotten constitution. It should never have been negotiated, it should never have been signed, it was essential that it should be defeated. The treaty took us a long stride closer to a United States of Europe, run by bureaucrats for the benefit of the European political class. The French and Dutch voters showed the power of democracy, and justified the use of referendums on constitutional issues. The German and British voters would have done the same, if they had been given referendums in the same week.

All of this is splendid, as good as a glass of champagne for those of us who believe in democracy. It is also pleasant, for those of us who are naturally Francophile, to emerge from the mists of the Cold War between Britain and France. That was a reaction to three extremely disagreeable French Presidents, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac. We now wait in joyful hope for a new French President. Thirty years of arrogant misgovernment must surely have been enough for the French.

The treaty is dead, whatever anyone says. It has been amazing to see all the defence lines which had been prepared for a British “no” hastily manned in defiance of the French “non”. But they will not hold. The British, in the last resort, might have been shown the exit. Like one of our footballers, we might have been thrown out of the Brussels nightclub. The French cannot be manhandled like that; they think that France is Europe, and the rest of Europe suspects that that may be true.

-snip-

[coconutt2000]

Haha.... Funny thing is that the Conservative Americans opposed the European Union Constitution as well.

It would've destroyed Europe's viability and vitality by burying them under a French like bureaucracy.

[Guillermo]

It's more of a Schadenfreude thing...as all the EU "Elites" (who all hate the US) were for it.

[Verginius Rufus]

Why would anyone be "naturally Francophile" if not born French?

The Anglo-French entente of 1904 was arguably the biggest mistake of the 20th century. Without it, no World War I, no Lenin, no Hitler, no World War II.

[JSteff]

"The Anglo-French entente of 1904 was arguably the biggest mistake of the 20th century. Without it, no World War I, no Lenin, no Hitler, no World War II"

Oh I don't know about that, european countries have shown throughout history they like to kill each other. If not each other then their own citizens.

That is why serbia came at just the right time. They were getting antsy and they at least got to bomb someone on their own continent.

Now they can all go back to feeling peaceful for another 40 or 50 years.

[clee1]

Exactly.

Mass-murder by way of wide warfare has always been a European sport.

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, with characters like Kaiser Wilhelm II running around there would have been a war sooner or later...there had been a few international crises in the preceding years that could have ended in war.

The opening weeks of WWI could have resulted in a quick German victory, like in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, so any slight chance in the lineup (like the absence of British troops) might have made the difference. Like what would have happened at Gettysburg in 1863 if J.E.B. Stuart had been doing his job and supplying Lee with the intelligence he needed about the whereabouts of the Union forces?

[Fenris6]

"I'm not dead yet! Its just a flesh wound!" - EU Constitution.

Note that the Dutch vote was non-binding

[JSteff]

"Like what would have happened at Gettysburg in 1863 if J.E.B. Stuart had been doing his job and supplying Lee with the intelligence he needed about the whereabouts of the Union forces?"

You are right, it would have been a different battle.