Marching into battle

摘要

Mourning can take many forms. After the death blows to the European Union constitution dealt by French and Dutch voters, many European politicians were for a time in denial. The French and Germans, and the bosses of the EU institutions in Brussels, insisted that the constitution was alive and that ratification should continue. Some federalists even clung to the hope that a yes vote in Luxembourg on July loth might revive the corpse. The British have been widely accused of showing an unseemly desire to bury the constitution, even though all they did this week was to announce that they were suspending the parliamentary bill authorising a referendum.