Tony Blair’s belated decision to allow Brits to vote on the proposed EU ‘constitution’ looks like providing some highly entertaining political theater across the continent. Among last week’s stars:

Giscard’Estaing, the man who drafted the document in the first place. He announced that, contrary to Blair’s desperate – and characteristically dishonest – scare-mongering, British rejection of the constitution need not lead to the UK’s departure from the EU. It wasn’t all good news from Giscard, however. The diamond king did warn that a no vote might leave Britain finding itself “on the edge of the Union,” much as it was with the Euro. Well, looking at the relative performance of the UK’s economy when compared with that of the Eurozone, that ‘edge’ has looked very comfortable indeed, more like a nice, and rather well-appointed, balcony. Giscard’s supposed warning looks, in fact. like yet another good reason for a no vote. More work needed, Monsieur, on your blood-curdling threats.

And then there’s that liar and (ha ha ha ha, ‘alleged’) crook better known as the President of France. The EU’s establishment is always claiming that the people of Europe are clamoring for a constitution. Despite that, Chirac seems oddly unwilling to allow the French a vote on it. Why would that be, I wonder?

Across the Rhine, Germany’s somewhat awkward history means (conveniently) that it is not legally permitted to hold a referendum, but that’s not enough for Chancellor Schroeder. He’s looking for ways to bring in the constitution even if it is not, as required, actually ratified in all EU member states (some laws, it seems, can be dispensed with). Schroeder’s worries are shared by the reliably repugnant Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a familiar and rather annoying face from 1968. These days he’s the leader of the Greens in the EU ‘parliament’. He wants a pan-EU plebiscite on the constitution. Why? He’s worried that some pesky small countries might dare to hold things up. That would never do. His plebiscite is, he says, “the only way to move away from the principle of unanimity, which will lead to a blockage…we are now in a situation in which Luxembourg, Malta or Cyprus could block the whole EU”. Message from Cohn-Bendit to Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus: “Drop dead.”

This drama will run and run.