For European federalists, 2005 is going to be a very long year (via Brothers Judd).
Opinion polls suggest that Britain, which will hold its referendum in March 2006, is the most likely to reject the constitution, followed by Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark.
But as Euroscepticism rises, even the Netherlands and France could reject it. Other countries holding referendums — Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg — are almost certain to vote “yes”.
The European No Campaign has held meetings in Brussels, and arranged for British Eurosceptics to appear on Dutch television.
Spanish Eurosceptics have begun a legal challenge to public money being spent on promoting the constitution. National campaign groups have started sharing experiences.
The “no” campaigns in Denmark and Sweden, countries that rejected the euro in referendums, are advising Dutch Eurosceptics who are fighting their first national referendum.
But the best part of the story is this passage:
The European No Campaign is an unlikely coalition of businesses, trade unionists, peace campaigners, democracy campaigners, socialists, conservatives and greens. UK businesses fear that the constitution will enhance trade union power. French socialists worry that it is too free-market. The Danes are worried that it undermines democracy, the Dutch are worried about their national identity, and Irish peace campaigners say that it turns the EU into a military power.
Jacques Chirac's European counterweight is just over the horizon. No, really.
This seems an appropriate moment to dust off a classic little fable: of unknown provenance, it landed in my e-mail inbox some six years ago.
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There is a beautiful desert island in the middle of nowhere where two men and one woman from each EU State are stranded.
Three months later:
One Italian man killed the other for the Italian woman.
The French men and the French woman are enjoying the threesome but complaining about the multitude of foreigners on their island.
The English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.
The German men have a strict weekly alternating sex-schedule; the woman gets weekends off.
The Belgian men have realised that the Belgian woman is, in fact, a seven year old boy and are mighty ashamed of the whole thing.
The Dutch men are fully prepared, in general, to share the woman. However, they are still debating how to ensure that both will have an exactly equal share, how to reduce supervision cost and how to guarantee the woman equal rights.
The Luxembourg men are still recovering from the shock of seeing half the population of Luxembourg stranded on the island. But they will soon start collecting sea-shells on the beach.
The Finnish men took one look at the endless ocean, one look at the Finnish woman and started swimming.
They were soon overtaken by the Portuguese men.
The Danish trio is trying to find folks to join them in an orgy; they gladly accepted the participation of the Finnish woman and are still vainly persuading the Portuguese woman.
The Spanish men heroically began protecting the virginity of the Spanish woman and are constantly and suspiciously prying on one another. Meanwhile, she dances flamenco.
The Austrian men initiated a yodelling contest for the woman; the loser immediately started learning flamenco, as well as Portuguese, Finnish and Danish.
The Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.
The Swedish woman keeps on bitching about female exploitation while the men are sunbathing and waiting for her to tell them what to do.
The Irish began by setting up a distillery for which they received substantial EU-subsidies. They don't recall if sex is in the picture, 'cause it gets sort of foggy after the first few rounds of coconut whiskey. But they're happy that, at least, the English aren't getting any.
“We can build a collective civic space large enough for all our separate identities, that we can be E Pluribus Unum — Out of One, Many.” (Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.)
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