I don't understand why it's taken as read by both sides

[AYD2MITalkTalk]

that an EU army, a United States of Europe, a European superstate, even a European tax code, would be undesirable.

I'd quite like to be a European citizen. I'd probably have more democratic influence than I do living in a Tory safe seat, where FPTP means my vote is worthless. My MEP was elected fairly - I don't feel unrepresented in Europe.

So why do both Leave and Remain treat it as completely settled that, for example, an EU Army would be a bad thing?

The tax code - actually a proposal for a tax ID number so that it's easier to tell that a national insurance / social security number in one country belongs to the same person as another number in another EU country) each country - is for anti tax evasion. There's a whole load of stuff we are cooperating on at EU level to reduce tax evasion, things to do with identifying the underlying beneficial ownership of assets etc.

As for futher integration, the UK gov wants the Eurozone to integrate further to make the Euro more resiliant. Differing levels of integration for Eurozone and non Eurozone are the way forward. There's even something called enhanced cooperation so a subset of states can go further with things. The UK has talked about doing this for those countries who want to press ahead faster with services sector liberalisation so we can trade services more easily across the continent.

I've not studied the EU Army thing. I know the EU Commission talk about a lot of things that ain't gonna happen because there's not enough support. But we'd only increase military cooperation if it make sense to us. We'd be the main player given we have much the biggest armed services in the EU.

It all sounds pretty sensible to me TBH.