Just picking up on your first point POPS, the EU is anything but populist. It’s structure is that of a technocracy where the experts rule regardless of the will of the people. No one asked for lower powertoasters that take longer to toast bread or kettles that take forever to boil. The populism that has arisen in Italy is in reaction to the EU way of ruling as is the Gillet Jeune movement in France. That the EU suppresses these movements says everything to me about where it is heading.