Back to Gideon Rachman
I was at a lunch at the Danish embassy in Brussels in 2001, when a diplomat strode in and whispered something nasty into the ambassador’s ear. The ambassador pulled a face and told his guests the bad news: the Irish had voted to reject the European Union’s Nice treaty. The lunch broke up in disarray.
I remembered that afternoon when the news came through last Friday that Ireland had now voted to reject the Lisbon treaty. Once again, we are being told that “Europe is in crisis”. British newspapers are trumpeting the idea that the Lisbon treaty is “finished”.
So it is worth remembering what happened last time. The Irish were simply made to vote again and came up with the “right” verdict the second time round.
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This blog covers a variety of topics from US foreign policy to European politics and the Middle East - and whatever else happens to be in the news or catch my attention. I joined the FT as chief foreign affairs commentator in 2006, after a 15-year career at The Economist which included stints as a correspondent in Brussels, Bangkok and Washington. I write a weekly column on foreign affairs, which appears in the paper on Tuesdays. Occasionally my FT colleagues contribute posts to this blog.
