The foreign secretary has in the past come to the House of Commons to praise the European constitution; today he will come to try to bury it. That is because Tony Blair would rather say "non" to Valéry Giscard d'Estaing than have the British people say "no and goodbye" to him. So our ever-flexible prime minister is changing tack: instead of grand plans for closer political integration, we are now promised grand plans for European economic reform.

I say right subject, wrong approach. High unemployment, low economic growth and the resulting sense of insecurity in western Europe have fuelled disenchantment with the direction of the European Union. The French and Dutch rejection of the constitution is a great opportunity to get Europe's leaders to stop building a European state and start building up their national economies. But Mr Blair needs to understand that Europe's economic problems will not be fixed by a communiqué from the European Council.