I fear all future empires lie in the east so unless you're learning to speak chinese, your succes may very well be limited.

I actually didn't vote in that referendum because I'm against referendums as a policy making tool. It's a form of direct democracy national politicians introduced to be able to not make the decisions themselves. Hence the problems of following through when the outcome of these referandums didn't workout as hoped. I also didn't vote because I'm lazy and don't want to vote for every new rule or law.

The problem of the EU is not it's own bureaucracy, I think national policians exxagerate this to deflect attention from their own incompetence. The problem is that whenever any major decision has to be made every national politician wants to have his or her say. That's why three years after the start of the economic crises no real sollutions where formulated. The EU needs some form of governement everybody can vote for and the European parliament has to get real democratic powers. So more Europe than less. We all embarked on this journey years ago. Leaving the ship now will only get you wet feet and possibly shark bites. We need to repair the boat together to stop it from sinking. Leave the boat (or not) when it's in safe waters.