I suspect you see everything EU through the prism of Brexit, hence you feel obliged to defend the status quo. Actually I don't think the sort of reforms I am advocating would have made any difference to the Brexit referendum, because it was never about democracy, transparency, accountability etc (was it?)

But I see the EU through the prism of what's going on on the Continent, and it's ugly. German-imposed austerity and wealth confiscation by capital has driven angry people to back xenopobic nationalist populists. The institutions of the EU (not counting the Council) are mostly well-meaning but, by design, incapable of making a difference, and largely captured by industry lobbyists (interesting that you see my views as enabling them, not sure where you got that from)

A movement to reform those institutions, to give them democratic legitimacy, tax-raising powers, the means of exercising the delegated sovereignty which is illegitimatele exercised by the Council, seems to me to be the only way forward. It's a long shot, but I don't see any other way to save the EU.

If you choose to conflate this with the Farages and Johnsons of this world, then (and I say this with a great deal of respect, Frank, yes, even with love) you can fuck off.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}