Earthquake in Ireland. No dead or injured. Some damage to Institutions.

The European Ideal did not die last week in Dublin, but a voice was given to millions who refuse to be patronised and spoken down to – particularly by lofty French intellectuals.

The French and Dutch rejected the 2005 European Constitution for a diverse raft of reasons, several of which were mutually contradictory. Accordingly, the Eurocrats told them they were fools and rewrote said Constitution as the Treaty of Lisbon, in nearly 400 pages of incomprehensible obfuscation. And then said, “take that”. Not unreasonably, the Irish told them where to stuff it.

So, the EU lurches forward to its next crisis and the one after that, and the one after that. No serious person doubts that the EU needs a new framework for the development of a grouping of 27 nations. But, this will evolve through due process of politics and not by diktat - as it should.

Funny old things, the voters. Keep treating them like idiots and eventually they turn round and kick you. Ask George W Bush.