Nothing to fear?

What a foetid little brain that funny little man Prodi must have – we will indeed miss him greatly, as the Eurosceptics’ best friend. 

In his last gasps as the outgoing commission presidente, he has articulated what he "fears most" – the rejection of the EU constitution. "Protest votes and disillusionment with sitting national governments", he rails, "must not be allowed to ‘infiltrate’ referendums on an EU constitution".

Not for our Romano the thought that people might vote against the accursed thing because they simply do not want it. Nor can he countenance the idea that voters might be disillusioned with their governments for signing the bloody thing. No, we simple voters must detach ourselves from our loathing of our governments in order to appreciate the purity of the constitution and vote accordingly.

Thus did Podi insist to MEP that they must not let public disenchantment with incumbent governments hit the ratification of the constitution. "We have to guarantee that the referendums and the national parliamentary votes are not just a reflection of the domestic political situation in each country," he said.

"We have to ensure that we don’t see national domestic issues infiltrating this debate because the great step forward that this represents could be compromised by that." Campaigns should "give a conscious and well thought position on what is the reality of the EU," he told the European Parliament.

And then we get to the nub of the Prodi nightmare: "The real issue is Europe and rejecting the constitutional treaty is what the democratic process fears most."

Er… words almost fail me. What "democratic process" is Prodi talking about? If people vote in referendums and chuck out the constitution, that is the democratic process. Why should he be afraid of that?