Re: @ Phil O'SophicalGood luck if UKIP/Farage succeed
I don't think anyone is seriously suggesting that sovereignty of states would be abolished, but there is a genuine concern that it will be sidelined in daily life so that countries are unable to run their own economic affairs as they wish. There are a number of politicians who make no secret of their desire for a federal europe (usually with themselves in charge).
The eurozone is already in a poor economic state, where Germany has the only strong growing economy, and other countries are unable to make the changes they would have done if they'd had economic independence. Within a single country it's accepted that rich regions pay to help poor ones, and although people grumble they're generally OK with that. That isn't the case within the EU as a whole, where there is increasing resentment in successful countries about paying for what they see as the economic incompetence of the poorer ones. There is no widespread feeling of european solidarity, and Europe is moving away from, and not toward, that.
Perhaps if that solidarity had been built first, on economic success, it might have been possible to make an EU work, but the politicians fiddled the books around the convergence criteria in order to create a eurozone for political, not economic, reasons, and they are now paying the price for that in terms of popular resentment.
I disagree that UKIP are only "stoking fantastical and nonsensical fears", polls in most EU countries showed increasing dislike and mistrust of the EU institutions long before UKIP were more than a loony fringe, and those concerns are being expressed by people well placed to know the diference between popular hysteria and fact. UKIP is certainly reacting to that and benefiting from it, as are other parties in other countries, but the concerns are real, and predate UKIP. To assume that simply preventing UKIP from "stoking fears" would make the problem go away shows a deep misunderstanding of the issue.
As for "failing to help their members live in the reality of modern life." that is somewhat patronizing, and is very symptomatic of the paternalistic attitudes people are reacting to. It's the old "if the people don't like it, it just shows they're too stupid to understand it" attitude, which underpinned far too many autocratic regimes.
Incidentally, I personally would not like the UK to leave the EU, if the EU can indeed be reshaped not to impose a "one size fits no-one" economic policy, and working to that should be a priority. I have very little hope that it can be done before the eurozone implodes, though. Apart from anything else, I am quite sure that the EU "powers that be" will not hesitate to make an example of any country with the temerity to unilaterally leave the EU. The chances of the UE permitting a calm exit into a Norway-like membership of only the EEA, which would probably suit Britain well, are close to zero.