The referendum is off

No, not that referendum. We still don't know what will happen in Ireland where they may well have to vote again, as they got the original answer wrong. There will be no referendum in the UK or in Denmark, the country we are talking about.

However, a little while ago the Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced that he was thinking of holding one or more referendums (that is the correct plural) on those opt-outs Denmark had been given rather grudgingly when the country first voted to reject the Maastricth Treaty.

He also thought it was time to have another referendum on the euro, which had been rejected by the Danes in 2000. This announcement was closely followed by speculation that Mr Rasmussen was a serious contender for the position of the European Council President, a new position established by the Constitutional Reform Lisbon Treaty.

It seems that Mr Rasmussen has suddenly felt a chill in his toes. The idea of a referendum (or several referendums) on all those various opt-outs has been abandoned.

Denmark has abandoned plans for an imminent referendum on its four EU opt-outs because of uncertainty following the Irish rejection of the Lisbon treaty, the prime minister said in an interview Friday.

"We initially thought we would discuss the EU this autumn and perhaps organise a popular vote," explained Danish premier Anders Fogh Rasmussen in an interview published in the daily Jyllands-Posten.

"But because of the problems caused by the Irish referendum it is no longer the most pressing issue."

He said a referendum on whether to drop one or some of the Danish opt-outs to its membership of the European Union has been postponed to an unspecified date.

Hmm, I wonder what that uncertainty might be. Could it be actually a near-certainty of a resounding Danish no?