There has been a bit too much crowing in Britain about the fact that two founder members of the EU turned rebel. Anyone would think that the Non/Nee Franco-Dutch double act vindicates Britain's own tired old ambivalence about being European. It doesn't. The French and the Dutch know for a fact that they are European through and through, and so they have the confidence to kick out a Constitution that, for various reasons, they didn't like. Their anti-EU feeling comes from insecurity about economics, ours comes from insecurity about identity. It's not much healthier.
Meawnhile, for hardcore Francologists, the blog recommends this piece of post-referendum demographic analysis in Le Monde today. It compares Sunday's results to the voting in the Maastricht referendum in 1992. The general gist is that the middle class has swollen in size with more university graduates, but their expectations of improved economic and social status haven't been met. They mostly voted Non. Meanwhile, the pro-enterprise private sector middle class has been infected by job insecurity and now fears competition instead of championing it. They also swung Non. In fact, most Oui-voters were upper middle class urban elites in super secure jobs.
And finally, it seems that the battle lines have been drawn for the next European summit with plenty of commentators predicting an Anglo-Saxon v Gaullist Euro-ideology death match. Following on from yesterday's blog excursion on the theme, we thought it was time to hold a referendum of our own.
If, as seems at least possible, France retreats into a kind of Social Market in One Country statism that leaves a limited number of outward looking visions for the world going forward. US Christian Ultra-Capitalism? Fundamentalist Islam? Nation State-driven strategic realpolitik? Or Blair-Brown cosy soft-edged liberal capitalism?
As regular Observer blog readers know, we love a bit of blue sky ideas-mongering and we're not averse to the odd pointless online poll. So we hereby present ...
The Observer blog ideology-o-meter.
You vote for the global system you prefer and the blog will see you on the barricade.
