IT breathes not and it moves not, but Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday refused to say what is clearly visible to all – that the EU constitutional treaty is dead.
As all 25 member states are required to say "yes", the French and Dutch votes mean that as it stands it cannot come into effect.
But caught between France and Germany, still insisting every country should see through their own ratification processes, and Article IV-447, which lays out the requirement for unanimous ratification, Mr Straw went for the careful balancing act of announcing in a Commons statement that a British referendum should be "postponed".
Shadow Foreign Secretary Liam Fox declared the treaty was dead and plenty more MPs made the same point, but it took the honourable Member for Bolsover, Denis Skinner, to point out that the situation had something of the Monty Python dead parrot sketch about it.
Mr Skinner suggested sending the French President a copy of the said clip.
It wasn't for Britain to declare the death, said Mr Straw meekly, not wanting to get into trouble with Messrs Chirac and Schroeder, collectively playing the part of insistent pet shop owner John Cleese.
And Mr Straw added helpfully that if circumstances changed, a referendum could be on the cards again – but there is little doubt that Tony Blair's aim next week at the EU leaders' meeting in Brussels will be to ensure that the death is certified and he never has to face that embarassing referendum he once hastily promised.
The Government can breathe a sigh of relief that its third historic term is unlikely to be dominated by war over the EU, but it is easy to underestimate how significant the rejection of the treaty – which has been literally years in the making – is to the future of the
project.
On one level the EU-builders are left without a blueprint for the future.
The constitutional treaty was a way to rearrange the veto and make qualified majority voting post-expansion to 25 the norm, increase the involvement of the EU in areas like justice and immigration, and firm up the identity of the Union, with a permanent EU President and foreign minister.
All this is now in the bin – and many will be trying desperately to work out how they can recycle or repackage parts of the document.
Some countries could propose the drafting of a new mini-treaty, rescuing the least contentious elements of the constitution and having another go.
Others might look to lesser reforms not requiring a treaty change – although this will be difficult to do if they are seen to be undermining referenda already held or attempting to circumvent the public.
And another idea might be for a two-tier Europe, with a more integrationist level led by France and Germany, and a more flexible club led by Britain.
None will be easy and it will be for Britain, which takes up the rotating six- month EU presidency at the end of this month, to begin to sort out the mess at a
crucial time.
But on another level the project is left with an even deeper problem.
Britons have generally been a thorn in the side of the keenest integrationists for years, but when the people of countries once considered stalwarts of the EU are openly questioning their allegiance and support for it, there is little doubt that the project is in deep trouble.
The results in France and Holland were barely about the parts of the new constitution, they were about people's perceptions and understandings of the EU and that makes them more potent. They were a rejection of a remote, elite-led project, which has taken on a life of its own and seemed un-accountable to the people of the democracies that make up the Union.
Eurosceptics everywhere are smiling, and openly asking if this could be the beginning of the end.
The pressure is on as never before for Europhiles to take a deep breath, face the turning tide and work out how to sell the project once more.