So France, the most pro-European country of all, has completed its "tidying up exercise" and given its verdict on the EU Constitution - a deafening "non", despite millions of euros spent trying to achieve the opposite result.

So where does that leave us? Apparently, the constitution contains a section which says if four-fifths of the member states ratify it, EU leaders should discuss ways of implementing it.

So it would seem the constitution is not dead, which would explain Luxembourg's premier, Jean-Claude Junckner's remarks before the French referendum: "If the French say oui', European integration would proceed and if they say non', European integration would proceed".

According to Peter Mandelson, the EU Commissioner for Trade, there should be another referendum in France.

He is reportedly not alone in thinking the misguided French voters do not know what is good for them. It has to be remembered, the Danish and Irish voters had to be taken to task when they had the effrontery to say no to the Treaties of Maastricht and Nice, respectively.

While we enjoy Jack Straw's "period of reflection", Brussels continues to implement sections of the EU constitution.

But what alternative is there when the unelected bureaucrats have gone so far down the road in anticipation of the approval they require.

Regardless of the rhetoric with which we will be bombarded during the coming weeks, we should be allowed to express our views through a long overdue referendum.

The majority of British people still think Britain in Europe should be about trade and defence, as agreed during the formation of the Common Market.

People were happy to support a dynamic trading block of sovereign states from which mutual advantages and closer ties would evolve.

But we are the victims of an arrogant elite, which has ignored our democratic rights. We are fed up with the absurd regulations, centralisation and bureaucracy which continue to be imposed and which is destroying the Entente Cordiale.

The French have had their say - the time has come for voters of this country to re-establish their authority.

-Neil Kelly, Hove