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I feel for the eurosceptics.

Bill Bailey has this entertaining song written from the perspective of a teenager with excellent parents who "pickme up from school / you attended all my sporting functions", the payoff of course being his rage at the very fact of their good parenting "How can I feel pain / when you're being so supportive?". It is a fact that teenagers are feeble-minded (sorry chaps, but it just goes with the turf, I was too, you won't always be, chin up), and furthermore it is a fact that the feebleminded are only capable of defining themselves in opposition to something.

And this was the first thought that popped into my head this morning to discover that Britain gets to carry on using ounces, pints and miles, as well as retaining the right to rise at 5 a.m to genuflect before a photo of the Queen Muvva gawd love 'er. Sure it will be hailed as a victory for (cough) common sense. Sure the Sun and Mail will doubtless splash pictures of punters enjoying a pint, or buying a pound of bananas. But, in a manner not dissimilar to the morning after a massive pill bender it s only a matter of time before the euphoria fades and in the grim light of morning the baggy eyed, grey skinned eurosceptics will whisper what now? How do we face the day when the night was so exciting?

For the Imperial system is one of the great shibboleths of the parochial little englander, and what Brussels has done is the political equivalent of a shrug and a drawled "whatever". The wonderful quote from Gunter Verheugen, the industry commissioner: "I want to bring to an end a bitter, bitter battle that has lasted for decades and which in my view is completely pointless" underlines european indifference to this talismanic issue; which the rabid nationalists have frothed for years was the number one target for faceless belgians, first they take our pound of bananas, next they'll make us watch Monsieur Hulot's holiday endlessly, next thing you nkow it'll be the old Etats Unis all over again. As it turns out they couldn't give a monkeys.

Coastalblog looks forward to seeing which bogeyman gets drummed up to fill the void. Anyone care to place your bets?

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