This is because France, arrogantly enough, still regards the European Union as its own triumphant creation; it will try to change it but never abandon it. John Redwood was only the first to crow that France would now repatriate the lost sovereignty stolen by the Brussels superstate But this is a fatal mistake. Only the far right in France, Jean-Marie Le Pen and the Front National, think in Victorian nationalist terms like British Tories.What most No voters were asking for is not a smaller, weaker Europe, but a different one. And one emotion connected all of them: the sense of outraged democracy.So was this a vote against Europe? Or even a vote against a "European superstate"? No, it was not.

12/11 Procure Sara Bareilles Tickets playing in Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, Hollywood Palladium. Sara Bareilles is playing in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh. Sara Bareilles tickets

01/12 - 12/11 Obtain Jeff Dunham Tickets staging in Philips Arena, Reno Events Center. Jeff Dunham is staging in Atlanta, Reno and Roanoke. Jeff Dunham tickets

10/11 - 11/11 Shop for Ray Lamontagne Tickets playing in Martini Ranch, Mary Mcleod Bethune Performing Arts Center. Ray Lamontagne is playing in Scottsdale, Daytona Beach and Atlanta. Ray Lamontagne tickets

The more the French government screamed that there could be no such thing as a "No for Europe", the more I realised this was exactly how many French people I knew were going to vote. As my nephew put it, "Most French people are still in favour of a federal Europe. After all, I can be completely against our own Fifth-Republic constitution, and I am still as French as anyone else!"True to form, British politicians have got French motives inside-out. Most of the argument was irrelevant to the constitution: the EU's free-market principles already existed.

But in the "No" camp, the anti-globalising young, the old Marxists, the neo-fascist chauvinists, the Islam-haters, the decent social democrats who dread the cut-throat world of neo-liberal economics, the trade unions protecting subsidised jobs, all came together. All referendum campaigns get out of control, as one question bloats into a dozen unasked questions. One of my French nephews told me: "I voted No because this is such a bad text. This is not a constitution at all, which should be drawn up by a democratically-elected assembly. This is just a treaty."The incompetence of the French political class, supposedly sophisticated, is almost beyond belief. A treaty defining the new rules of the EU was necessary after the 2004 enlargement. But Giscard d'Estaing's pompous insistence on calling it a constitution was asking for trouble.