I am an ardent believer in the United States of Europe.  I have heard most of the objections from politicians that see their influence (and income) fade away.  I'll list below the reasons that I want to see the U.S.E. formed as soon as possible.

1    Germany is going through a rough spot at the moment with unemployment at a record post-war high.  Remember Hitler and why he was voted into power.  It was because of a similar situation to what Germany is going through now.  Hitler was elected by a democratic vote, but he had the gift of the gab and persuaded the electorate that his military policies would overcome the problems that the citizens were suffering.  It's true that the situation in the early 1930s was a lot worse than it is today, but everything is relative.

2    I want to see the USE become a federal system similar to the USA.  The American system seems to me to allow a lot of differences between states, but it has enough control to put down a serious rebellion such as there was in the 1960s when one of the southern states defied the Supreme Court and refused to allow blacks to enter their universities.  It was quite a serious spat, even to the extent that there were several deaths when southern diehards confronted Federal Troopers.  I can see the possibility of such an event in Europe.  But had we had a setup that I want to see, in 1930, World War II would have been avoided.

3    The United States of America (that country that arrogantly calls itself by the name of the continent of which it is part) is, at present, the only superpower.  So George Bush will do his best to stop Europe uniting properly because we could well become an equal (or even a  superior) to the USA.  I envisage the U.S.E. becoming a diplomatic rival of the U.S.A.  There is no risk of us actually going to war with Uncle Sam, neither of us are that stupid.  At the moment, the EU is actually putting up some satellites to form our own navigation system, that, I understand will be a little more accurate than the American one.  And, you've guessed it, Uncle Sam is most unhappy at losing his monopoly.

4    I want to see the U.S.E. become a power similar to the USA so that we can have a common defence policy.  At the moment our armed forces are being stretched beyond their optimum capability, and it shows in how the government is having to juggle its money to pay for hospitals and other social services.

5     Most educated Europeans speak English, and I foresee the day when the local national languages become just that: local languages.  The poor old French will bleat like crazy as they are so proud of their own language that they have an Acadamie to look after it.  But the French are realists; I visited Paris in 1980 and whenever I asked the way in my schoolboy French, I would be replied to in good English.  And if you listen to German politicians, they speak English better than the majority of Brits.

6    There are a lot of complaints about European Directives.  The way the press report on many of these directives, they sound totally absurd.  But if they took British Law and gave it the same treatment, so would many of our laws.  I don't agree with many things that come out of Brussels, but they are not fools.  Some of the Directives are definitely against British interests, but in any marriage, there has to be give and take.  My main reason for wanting the U.S.E. to be like the USA is that Britain is simply too small to strut around the globe as it used to.  True, we are still a power to be reckoned with, but we are slowly getting less and less.  "I am the greatest" is not a good way to go into the future, mainly because we are NOT "the greatest" any more.  The USA is not our enemy, but it is our rival.  Despite the fact that the two nations speak a similar language, we have more in common with Europe than we have with the USA.