Returning to this point for a moment: it reminds me of my earlier question about the optimum number of levels of government but also the fact that we do vote for UK politicians - for better or for worse.

There was an earlier post that praised the democratic nature of the EU - I never could identify with that.
It may be like that in Germany but here in the UK the public do not vote for the EC commissioners (I see that Neil Kinnock and his side-kick wife have joined us from the continent for a while).
THe UK gets about 70 MEPs among 700+ total and are voted down on every occasion by virtue of this inbuilt minority or by use of Qualfied Majority Voting.
In essence, the UK, for many reasons - common law being but one - is not compatible with the current arrangements of the EU.

In any case, the European Parliament is notorious for acting as a mere rubber stamp to the EC; as just one instance, the EU parliament cannot introduce legislation, it simply accepts the proposals that come from the EC.
So, the EU parliament is less of a representative democracy system than that of our own UK system which has it's own gaping issues that need to be addressed.
But, the binary choice presented at present is not about the many UK internal issues but the external issue of the EU; in that we all need to make a judgement of where it is going, 10-20-30 years and more ahead.

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Dave