Taking a rain-czech?

Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel has spoken out against a referendum on the EU constitution in his country, even though he disagrees with the constitution.

He considers it to be "a very complicated technical text" and therefore it would be "pointless" to hold a referendum on it. People, in his view, do not understand it enough to be able to hold a vote on it.

In an interview, broadcast on Czech TV, he did add that, to his "disappointment", the constitution changed little in the EU, and thought that a rejection of the constitution by one country might lead to its exclusion from the EU's political integration.

Interestingly, opposition parties are also playing the "isolation card", claiming that Havel is splitting the public on the EU issue and that there is a danger that Czechoslovakia will find itself among two or three countries on the margins of Europe.

Concluding his interview, he went on to urge the Czechs that: "The year of 2005 must not become a year without a name and without a content. This must not be a year about which we will admit to ourselves after 365 days that it simply passed"

I’ll drink to that.