No crisis today, thank you

Anthony Barnett (London OK): In his contribution below Tony Curzon Price argues all constitutions have to come out of a crisis and gives the example of the 5th republic. He concludes by hoping that we have the "right" crisis (But see the argument about our "good crisis" I set out in an interview about Our Kingdom). There is a hint of alarmism here. It feeds a British view that all this is much too revolutionary. But we don't need a calamity to get up off our backside. No one who wants a progressive outcome should ever wait for a crisis. A good example is the creation of the euro. This was a much more ambitious and far-reaching reform that writing a national constitution. The British political class thought is was impossible and could never work. They would, wouldn't they! Its aim was crisis-prevention and it succeeded.