all across Europe, dummies are being chucked

Europhilia: from sulking to threats:

The Eurosceptic left's embrace of nationalism is particularly insidious, because it hides behind the language of social justice. Time was when the European left was outward-looking, internationalist, and concerned with the least well-off, no matter where they lived. In Europe today, the least well-off are to be found primarily in central and eastern Europe. European enlargement, one of the greatest achievements of post-war Europe, offers these victims of history a life-line into the modern democratic world. That's the reason for admitting Turkey.

No-one is being rejected if the French vote no. The EU will remain in exactly the state it is today. None of its Eastern European members will be any the worse off and the accession criteria will remain identical for any nation wishing to join, including Turkey. And why is it that further European integration has to involve economic transfers from the least well off in Western Europe to the least well off in Eastern Europe? I really wish someone would set up some kind of pundit shack in Slovakia, offering reams of pious pro-European think pieces to editors across the continent for a third of the money their current authors are paid. That would knock a few holes in their mandarin arrogance.

Alternatively, if the people are so foolish as to vote wrong, they should be given no choice.

Europe desperately needs more flexible labour markets. It also needs to redesign its welfare systems for a world where people live a long time, have few or no children, and are likely to pursue a range of jobs over the course of their lives. The reforms necessary are best tackled at the European level. They require a far more politically integrated polity - a superstate, if you will - than Europeans have as yet dared to create.

There’ll be a lot more of this if the French vote no, and it bears watching.