A reader writes:

Which side do I support in the French referendum on the constitution? It would be nice to watch the faces of the unelected Eurocrats after a 'no' vote from France. It would deliver a swift uppercut to the dirigiste, top-down federalist vision. On the other hand, a 'yes' vote would be sweet if the French thought it forced them into an Anglo-Saxon liberalism, with free trade and free markets, which they seem to detest. Which side should I back?

The ASI replies: "A 'no' vote might be more fun, in that it would cause a heart-searching re-evaluation within both the EU and France itself, as each had to re-think its future. It might be fun, too, to watch pro-Europeans in Britain trying to insist that a politically united Europe was still 'inevitable,' and to handle the fact that the Euro-train which we could not afford to miss was now a tangled mass of scrap metal. And the clang as Chirac's smile dropped to the floor might make a sweet sound.

While we could, as you say, hail a 'yes' vote as the final triumph of perfidious Albion with its heartless Anglo-American economic model, the future will probably force that upon them whatever happens on May 29th.”