THE EUROPEAN UNION CONSTITUTION: Another loser at the polls:

Support for the 230-page document was negligible among key states certain to hold a vote, falling as low as five per cent in Holland and three per cent in Denmark, said the EU-wide poll yesterday.

Most people with any view on the matter wanted the text “partially” or “radically modified” or abandoned, though most supported the abstract principle of an EU constitution.

Britons were the most hostile, with 35 per cent calling for outright rejection. But citizens in all of the EU’s current and future states appeared disdainful of the document.

Support for the draft stands at 11 per cent in Germany followed by France (10 per cent), Spain (seven), Austria (six) and Finland (four). . . .

The survey is a blow to Valery Giscard d’Estaing and the EU establishment, who have insisted that the text elaborated by the 105-strong drafting convention of MPs and MEPs reflects the collective will of Europe’s peoples and must not be “unpicked” by national capitals.

Ah, the “collective will of Europe’s peoples.” So much more convenient than, you know, what people actually want, as it always seems to coincide with the “collective will” of Europe’s apparatchiks. Prediction: They’ll try to find a way to approve it without a vote. Another prediction: The legitimacy of the EU will be further tarnished.