OK - after more than an hour of listening to every talking head in Europe, and elsewhere, talk about the referendum today on the European Constitution, which has been rejected in France by a 55 percent to 45 percent vote, I'm going to bed. If you are reading this entry first, I recommend jumping to the bottom of today and reading in reverse order, to see the evolution as the results came in, defeat (or victory) was declared, and the recrimination got underway.

His name is John Bruton, he is the former irish prime minister/taoisech(in irish). This result is very difficult to interperet. For example, you have british conservatives saying that the constitution has a french socialism agenda, while the french left say that it has a neo-liberal agenda. Also, some of the no vote was against raffarin(the most unpopular french prime minister in the history of the republic) and his government for trying to introduce some sort of neo liberal agenda. But to anglo-saxons, these policies would seem like common sense in order to reduce the high uemployment in france. For example, the trying to get rid of the 35hr week. And then there is the whole issue with Turkey joining the EU in the future, which French people seem to really have a problem with it. Personally, if there is a constitution vote in Ireland, I will vote in favour. The EU needs these rules as we move from "le douze a le vingt-cinq". However it would have been nice to see more social rights enshrined in the constitution.