So there seems to be some debate about how much we should pay as part of Brexit

[Burney]

Nationalism was at the heart of every problem in Europe for the century that preceded WW2. THe crumbling of great empires and the states that replaced them on the continent created a fundamental shift in the balance of European influence, most notably with the Gerries. Yes, it is unfair to blame the idea of the nation state for this as the balance of european power had to be restructured as the continental empires crumbled. Nevertheless, cooperation in europe in the aftermath was important and would have felt so.

Quite frankly, the attempts of the remain campaign to nod in the direction of european security and safety in defence of the EU was laughable. At this stage, the idea of Germans marching into France is as laughable as the idea that the EU would be able to prevent it happening.

So what is the real purpose of the EU? As Ash says, cheap labour and comfy regs for businesses to prowl the continent with greater ease. For us it also means being the natural home for those from the poorest parts of the Union.

From our point of view, bit of a **** deal.

Europe's problem has always been very simple: a lot of different people who don't much like one another crammed into a relatively small continent and competing for resources. If it isn't nationalism, it's ideology. If it isn't ideology, it'll be religion or ethnicity. if it isn't nations vs nations, it's been city states vs city states or dukedoms vs dukedoms. The only things that've stopped people killing one another in Europe in the last 70 years have been economic and material exhaustion, the threat of nuclear annihilation and a relative torpor induced by living cosily under NATO's nuclear umbrella. Dismantling the nation state (assuming it's even possible, which I doubt) will make fück all difference to anything.