What do you mean, 'No'?

The French and Dutch 'no' votes – at Moneyweek.co.uk - the best of the week's international financial media.

To the delight of Europhobes everywhere, the French electorate has delivered a significant 'Non!' to the European Union constitution, even though it was drafted by one of their own, the congenitally haughty ex-President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing. But, though the various factions of Neocons and Anglo-skeptics are reveling shamelessly in what they see as a major reverse for their Continental 'enemies', we should note that the repudiation of this flawed document may be actually rum out to a decided positive for Europe.

To put the leadership's embarrassment in context, we should tell you that, with what now seems to be a laughable degree of fanfare, a gold-bound copy of the thing was even loaded aboard a recent rocket launch from Kazhakstan, bound for the International Space Station. The cynic in us is tempted to remark that this was perhaps the single best thing that could have be done with this depressingly positivist and relentlessly centralizing tract.

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