"No longer sitting independently on the fence I see Ed, are you at last 'coming out' and declaring which side of the political fence you are sitting on? :0)"
I DO sit in the middle politically though. I'm an old fashioned liberal.
I like the EU as a concept, but it needs reform, it needs to be democratised and legitimized in the minds of the great unwashed.
This should go on your reading list AOG:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0141034645 it's about the decline of violence across human history, and much is dedicated to the systems which go with this decline. It's wonderfully written and heavily backed up by a vast amount of data.
I also recommend it to anyone who thinks the British Empire was a bad idea. We left those parts of the world in a agreeable and civilized state and in some cases left them with lasting democratic or nearly democratic institutions (which is a pretty big deal when you look at the mess everyone else made of it!)