Inadvertently good analogy ...

EU Referendum lays into the waffly review of some waffly book that showers praise on the EU.

What is interesting is the last paragraph cited, in which the author (or the reviewer?) unwittingly hints at the reasons for the EU's eventual demise...
"As with all empires, the EU rubber band will stretch until it no longer can, growing until it has fully replaced the dismantled Soviet Union across Europe's east, creating a borderless and contiguous "Pax Europea" of about 35 countries, an imperial blanket covering close to 600 million people…"

Wrong!

Empires can never resist expanding a little bit further, a little bit further, can they? They always stretch that 'rubber band' just one country or one territory too far, don't they...

... until it snaps!