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Version 5 Version 6
EU referendum live: Pounds falls in value as poll shows Leave four points ahead EU referendum live: Cameron says Brexit vote would be economic 'bomb'
(35 minutes later)
10.38am BST
10:38
Q: [From Andy Bell, 5 News] Isn’t the case for Remain being lost in the Tory civil war? And what will you do to end it?
Cameron says he is going to focus on the facts. Today we have seen a broad alliance. People who would not normally be seen together, “be seen dead together on a platform”, all making the case for Remain.
The Leave campaign are being reckless.
They are going around the country telling people things that simply are not true, he says.
10.36am BST
10:36
Cameron's Q&A
The speeches are over.
Cameron says they will take some questions.
Q: [From Alex Forsyth, BBC] Isn’t the fact you have to line up with Labour and the Lib Dems and the Greens a sign of the disunity in your party?
Cameron says there is an “extraordinarily broad alliance” in favour of Remain. The four speakers have put a broad range of arguments, he says. People want to know the arguments and the facts.
10.32am BST
10:32
Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, is speaking now.
She says she wants to focus today on the environmental case for staying in the EU.
The environment doesn’t respect national borders. Birds migrate. Fish cross seas. Rivers merge. Oceans meet. Air pollution drifts. Natural resources are shared. Acid rain pours on everyone – not just the country responsible for the pollution. What one country does to its own environment can profoundly affect its neighbours – and those far beyond it. Some people think of environmental threats as a concern only for the few – but they matter to everyone. Take air pollution as just one example - it kills thousands every year and particularly affects the poorest, the oldest and the least healthy – It is an issue of inequality as much as it is of environmental protection.
And we know that action on the biggest threats to our environment can’t just be conducted from our own island – it has to be done internationally. And it is. Over the years, European Union membership has helped transform the UK’s natural environment.
Updated
at 10.33am BST
10.30am BST
10:30
Harman challenges Vote Leave to say what workers' rights they would cut
Harriet Harman is speaking now.
She says she wants people to know where Labour stands.
It’s not surprising that Labour supporters have struggled to catch a glimpse of why Labour backs the EU as the media has been dominated by the row in the Tory party.
She says the EU protects workers’ rights.
Because we’re in the EU, people have better rights at work. The EU guarantees those rights. It’s the EU that made our governments pass laws to ensure employers give paid holiday, paid maternity leave, rights for part-timers. So long as we’re in the EU no Tory government can try and take those rights away.
And she says the Remain campaign is right to warn people about the threat to workers’ rights.
I’m not going to be put off by people calling it “Project Fear”. I am fearful about jobs, and women’s rights at work, and I make no bones about it.
The leaders of the campaign that wants us to leave the EU say that they can’t guarantee that people wouldn’t lose their jobs - but it’s a risk worth taking. But it’s not their jobs at risk. We need more jobs not fewer. Let’s not make getting a job harder.
And I’m fearful about our rights at work - and with good reason. Look at the leaders of the leave campaign. They never fought for your rights at work - they’ve fought against them. They say they want to get rid of the “social chapter” and cut “red tape” and scrap regulation. That’s your right to paid holiday they’re talking about, your maternity leave, your paternity pay. We need better rights at work, not to have to start fighting to defend the rights that we already have.
So I challenge them today - you’ve said you want to “cut red tape” and scrap “£600m of regulation. Don’t speak in code. Be honest about it. Admit that means you would abolish the rights to maternity leave and paternity leave, scrap the laws that stop employers treating part-timers as second class citizens and which make employers pay for holiday leave.
And she says people should not blame immigrants for the state of the NHS.
Immigration is a big issue so I want to put out some facts. There’s more immigration from outside the EU than people coming from other EU countries.
If you’re worried about the NHS - don’t blame immigrants. The person from Ireland, or Spain or Portugal is more likely to be the nurse at your bedside than queuing in A and E. So don’t blame the EU for problems in the NHS - that’s down to the government.
10.23am BST
10:23
Farron says the Vote Leave campaign has been particularly dishonest on the subject of public spending.
Their big red bus says you can save £350m a week, and then spend it all on the NHS. A complete con. And they’re still driving it round despite the figure being rubbished by every economist under the sun.
And it’s not just the NHS this made-up, magic money is spent on. This dossier shows they have made two dozen different spending commitments.
Want more money for schools? You got it. Roads, railways, houses. Yep. Do you want to pay junior doctors more, increase welfare spending and slash the deficit all in one go? Of course you do.
You can even have more submarines if that is your thing.
How about abolishing prescription charges? Cutting your council tax by more than half? Slashing VAT – and your energy bills too while they’re at it.
They have even said they’d spend millions and millions filling in Britain’s potholes.
All of which sounds very tempting, especially that last one - filling in potholes is a cause very close to every Liberal Democrat’s heart.
But, if you add all these things up, it would cost £113bn.
One hundred and thirteen billion pounds.
He says there was a particularly strong example of Vote Leave’s dishonesty at the weekend.
Another clear as day example of one of their cons was just this week. On Saturday, they said by 2020, we can give the NHS a £100 million per week cash injection. On Sunday, they said we wouldn’t leave the EU until after 2020. So where would this magic money come from? They are literally making it up as they go along, trying to con the British public along the way.
10.20am BST
10:20
Tim Farron says Vote Leave campaign is 'based on lies'
Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, is speaking now.
He says he wants to put a positive case for the EU, but it is important to say that the Vote Leave case is based on lies, he says.
I believe in the positive case for Europe. But I cannot stand back and allow the leave campaign to guide us towards economic ruin, because of a campaign based on lies.
How betrayed will people feel if they vote to leave Europe based on the reasons presented by the Leave Campaign, only to see in the weeks, months and years that follow that those reasons were utter, invented rubbish.
10.17am BST
10:17
Cameron says leaving the EU would 'put a bomb under our economy'
Cameron says Vote Leave have not explained what terms of access the UK would have to the EU market if it left.
They have offered many different models, he says.
He says leaving the EU would generate three effects.
One: there would be an immediate shock effect.
Almost everyone now agrees, from the Governor of the Bank of England to the IMF, the OECD to the Treasury, 9 in 10 economists to, yes, even some Leave campaigners, there would be an economic shock if we left Europe.
Let’s be clear what that means:
The pound falling; prices rising; house prices collapsing; mortgage rates increasing; businesses going bust; and unemployment going up.
In other words: a recession.
Two: there would be an uncertainty effect.
We’d have to renegotiate our relationship with 27 other EU countries…
…and with 53 countries and territories with whom we have deals through the EU.
Given that it took Greenland 3 years – and they just sell fish...
…and Canada 7 years – and they haven’t even finished…
…we’d face a decade of uncertainty.
There’s nothing the people who create our jobs and grow our economy hate more.
And think about it for someone starting out. Leaving school. Beginning that apprenticeship. Looking forward to graduating.
Do we want those young people, the future of our country, to face a decade of uncertainty?
Three: there’d be a trade effect.
Nearly half of what we sell goes to Europe.
And, with a worse deal, in the long term our trade would shrink and become more expensive.
Think of the impact on BMW, for example. 80 per cent of Minis are exported.
Think of the wider impact: fewer businesses, fewer jobs, a smaller economy and less money for our schools and hospitals.
Add those things together – the shock impact, the uncertainty impact, the trade impact – and you put a bomb under our economy.
And the worst thing is we’d have lit the fuse ourselves.
10.12am BST
10:12
Cameron says Vote Leave's failure to set out economic vision is 'undemocratic' and 'reckless'
David Cameron is speaking at the Britain Stronger in Europe event.
He says Britiain will be stronger if it stays in the EU.
And he challenges Vote Leave to explain what would happen if Britain left.
By failing to set out an economic plan, they are being “undemocratic” and “reckless” he says.
He says the British economy is slowing because of the uncertainty facing the UK.
He says today Britain Stronger in Europe is publishing a document highlighting the inconsistencies in the Vote Leave case.
10.08am BST
10:08
Here is the scene where David Cameron is about to share a platform with Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, and Natalie Bennett, the Green leader, to make the case for staying in the EU.
9.54am BST9.54am BST
09:5409:54
Here are the YouGov tables with full details of their poll (pdf).Here are the YouGov tables with full details of their poll (pdf).
Latest EU referendum poll: Leave leads by four points https://t.co/Sd2GpOktFt pic.twitter.com/w5Pzdc3KdlLatest EU referendum poll: Leave leads by four points https://t.co/Sd2GpOktFt pic.twitter.com/w5Pzdc3Kdl
9.42am BST9.42am BST
09:4209:42
Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru, has urged young people to make sure they are registered to vote before tomorrow, the final day for registration. She said:Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru, has urged young people to make sure they are registered to vote before tomorrow, the final day for registration. She said:
The younger generation have most at stake in this referendum. It is today’s eighteen year olds and twenty-somethings who will live with the legacy of the outcome longer than any of us older people. To all of you - I urge you not to let others determine your future.The younger generation have most at stake in this referendum. It is today’s eighteen year olds and twenty-somethings who will live with the legacy of the outcome longer than any of us older people. To all of you - I urge you not to let others determine your future.
The fact that you can travel freely throughout the European Union to learn, to explore and broaden your horizons is cause for celebration.The fact that you can travel freely throughout the European Union to learn, to explore and broaden your horizons is cause for celebration.
There are numerous EU safeguards - from employment rights, to human rights, women’s rights, environmental protections. Do we trust Westminster and especially the Tories in Westminster to protect these and act in Wales’s best interests?There are numerous EU safeguards - from employment rights, to human rights, women’s rights, environmental protections. Do we trust Westminster and especially the Tories in Westminster to protect these and act in Wales’s best interests?
9.26am BST9.26am BST
09:2609:26
TNS has sent out more details of its poll. As Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at TNS UK explains, the headline figures (Leave 43%, Remain 41%) only give Leave a lead because of the way the results have been weighted according to likelihood to turn out.TNS has sent out more details of its poll. As Luke Taylor, head of social and political attitudes at TNS UK explains, the headline figures (Leave 43%, Remain 41%) only give Leave a lead because of the way the results have been weighted according to likelihood to turn out.
With the referendum less than a month away, we are now adjusting the voting intention for differential turnout. The support for ‘Remain’ looks to be softer than the support for ‘Leave’ and without this adjustment ‘Remain’ would have a three point lead over ‘Leave’. Whether or not ‘Remain’ supporters turn out will therefore be critical in the outcome.With the referendum less than a month away, we are now adjusting the voting intention for differential turnout. The support for ‘Remain’ looks to be softer than the support for ‘Leave’ and without this adjustment ‘Remain’ would have a three point lead over ‘Leave’. Whether or not ‘Remain’ supporters turn out will therefore be critical in the outcome.
UpdatedUpdated
at 9.29am BSTat 9.29am BST
9.16am BST9.16am BST
09:1609:16
Johnson claims UK face 'triple whammy of woe' if it stays in UK - but Cameron says he's wrongJohnson claims UK face 'triple whammy of woe' if it stays in UK - but Cameron says he's wrong
Boris Johnson has coined the most colourful soundbite of the morning. According to the Daily Telegraph, he is going to claim in his speech today that taxpayers face “a triple whammy of woe” if they stay in the EU.Boris Johnson has coined the most colourful soundbite of the morning. According to the Daily Telegraph, he is going to claim in his speech today that taxpayers face “a triple whammy of woe” if they stay in the EU.
The risks of remain are massive. Not only do we hand over more than £350 million a week to the EU, but if we vote to stay the British people will be on the hook for even more cash. It is a triple whammy of woe: the eurozone is being strangled by stagnation, unemployment and a lack of growth, it could explode at any time and we will be forced to bail it out.The risks of remain are massive. Not only do we hand over more than £350 million a week to the EU, but if we vote to stay the British people will be on the hook for even more cash. It is a triple whammy of woe: the eurozone is being strangled by stagnation, unemployment and a lack of growth, it could explode at any time and we will be forced to bail it out.
The botched bureaucratic response to the migration crisis means the Eurocrats are demanding even more of our money. And now we find that there is a £20 billion black hole in the EU’s finances.The botched bureaucratic response to the migration crisis means the Eurocrats are demanding even more of our money. And now we find that there is a £20 billion black hole in the EU’s finances.
Vote Leave is claiming that unmet costs in the EU’s budget could mean the UK having to contribute an extra £2.4bn. The other two “whammies” are supposed extra contributions because of the immigration crisis, and supposed contributions to future eurozone bailouts.Vote Leave is claiming that unmet costs in the EU’s budget could mean the UK having to contribute an extra £2.4bn. The other two “whammies” are supposed extra contributions because of the immigration crisis, and supposed contributions to future eurozone bailouts.
As Claire reported earlier, Cameron has used Twitter to say that Johnson’s claims are “simply wrong”. (See 8.33am.)As Claire reported earlier, Cameron has used Twitter to say that Johnson’s claims are “simply wrong”. (See 8.33am.)
8.51am BST
08:51
Pounds falls in value as poll shows Leave four points ahead
Andrew Sparrow
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Claire.
There are two polls out this morning showing Leave ahead.
As Claire reported earlier, a YouGov poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain puts Leave four-points ahead.
EU refernedum poll:Remain: 41% (-)Leave: 45% (+4)(via YouGov)Chgs. from 30 - 31 May.
This is from the LSE’s Simon Hix.
New @YouGov #Brexit poll shows big shift from Don't Knows to #VoteLeave in past week:Remain: 41% (-)Leave: 45% (+4)Fieldwork. 1-3 June
There is also a TNS poll putting Leave two-points ahead, although this also shows the Leave lead going down.
EU referendum poll:Remain: 41% (+3)Leave: 43% (+2)(via TNS, online / 19 - 23 May)
As we have been reporting on the business blog, the pound fell first thing this morning on the back of these polls.
Pound hits 3-week low after new #Brexit polls show more people want to leave EU https://t.co/Saz1rlffJV pic.twitter.com/RVeHgiQOhV
8.35am BST
08:35
Claire Phipps
I’m now handing over the live blog to Andrew Sparrow, who’ll take you through the rest of the day. Thanks for reading and for the tweets and comments.
8.33am BST
08:33
David Cameron has taken to Twitter – as I believe journalists are obliged to describe it – to knock back claims by Vote Leave that Britain would be liable for a £2.4bn bill to the EU in the event of a win for Remain.
1/2. The Leave campaign is simply wrong to claim we will have to bailout Eurozone countries.
2/2. We are not part of Eurozone bailout schemes. We also have a veto over any EU budget increases.
A BBC reality check – admittedly on the subject of bailouts more widely, rather than the specific £2.4bn claim – came to the same conclusion as the PM:
The UK will not pay for future eurozone bailouts. This has already been agreed by EU leaders. In addition, the UK-EU deal from February, which will be implemented if the UK votes to stay in the EU, reinforces this and states that the UK would be reimbursed if the general EU budget is used for the cost of the eurozone crisis.
8.16am BST
08:16
Over on the business desk, my colleague Graeme Wearden is live blogging developments as the pounds slides following the poll boost for Brexit:
The pound is sliding this morning after a string of opinion polls gave the Brexit campaign a lead in the 23 June EU referendum.
Sterling tumbled in early trading, shedding more than 1.5 cents against the US dollar. It has hit a three-week low of $1.4355, down 1.1%.
It is also losing ground against other developed currencies. Against the euro, the pound is down 1 eurocent at €1.2661.
Traders are reacting to yesterday’s Observer/Opinium poll, which gave the Brexit campaign a three percentage point lead. And aYouGov poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain has put Leave in front on 45% and Remain on 41%.
Many analysts have predicted that the pound would tumble if Britain voted to leave the EU, possibly as low as $1.20 against the US dollar.
Related: Pound slides after polls show Brexit campaign gaining ground - business live
8.10am BST
08:10
Robert Hutton at Bloomberg has bravely taken a look at what the polling in this referendum campaign might mean – or not mean – given the polling blip in the run-up to the Scottish referendum, and the wide-of-the-mark statistics that marked last year’s general election. Should we ignore the polls? Or if not, how much salt do we need to be pinching?
In any case, this quote by Joe Twyman, head of political polling at YouGov, has a ring of truth:
There’s a discrepancy in levels of motivation. There are millions of people who would walk barefoot across broken glass to vote to leave.
The Remain campaign doesn’t have people who feel the same way.
7.58am BST
07:58
After last week’s debate-separated-by-24-hours, in which Cameron and Gove endured separate grillings on Sky News, this week sees a similar set-up as the prime minister definitely does not face off with Nigel Farage in an ITV Q&A.
Screened live on ITV1 on Tuesday at 9pm, Cameron and Farage will appear individually in front of a studio audience of 200 people for 30 minutes of questions, moderated by Julie Etchingham.
Later this week, ITV also hosts a two-hour debate that will actually be a debate, with Remain and Leave candidates on-screen at the same time and even engaging with each other.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon will appear for the In campaign, with the Sunday Telegraph reporting that she will be flanked by Conservative minister Amber Rudd and Angela Eagle for Labour.
On the Out side will be Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stuart.
Updated
at 8.01am BST
7.45am BST
07:45
Ten trade union leaders, including the general secretaries of Unite, Unison, the GMB and Usdaw, have signed a letter to the Guardian today in support of Britain remaining in the EU and calling on their combined 6 million members to vote accordingly.
They say:
After much debate and deliberation we believe that the social and cultural benefits of remaining in the EU far outweigh any advantages of leaving …
Despite words to the contrary from figures like Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove, the Tories would negotiate our exit and, we believe, would negotiate away our rights. We simply do not trust this government if they are presented with an unrestricted, unchecked opportunity to attack our current working rights.
Read the letter in full here:
Related: Trade union members should vote to stay in the EU | Letter from Len McCluskey, Dave Prentis and others
7.26am BST
07:26
Matthew D’Ancona, in a new Guardian column this morning, says Cameron is wrong to say – as he did to the Mail on Sunday yesterday – that he would not sack Johnson and Gove if Remain wins the referendum:
It is one thing to be a conciliator; quite another to be a pushover. No structure of authority can long survive if there are not clear consequences for transgressions.
Let’s be frank: does Cameron really believe the Brexiteers will be as merciful to him if he loses? The hardcore of backbenchers who loathe him are longing for a confidence vote and a merciless battle to replace him with Johnson as soon as possible. This plan is all but public – demeaningly so for Cameron.
A united party is not one where the leader yields to every demand and forgives every offence. A united party is one where the leader combines breadth of support with a recognition of behavioural limits and the authority to enforce them.
Related: If David Cameron wins the referendum, he must be ruthless with his Tory foes | Matthew d’Ancona
7.14am BST
07:14
Here’s an intriguing one: the BBC’s James Lansdale reports that a group of pro-EU MPs are investigating whether the House of Commons – which has a majority for Remain – could keep Britain inside the single market even in the event of a vote for Leave:
The BBC has learned pro-Remain MPs would use their voting power in the House of Commons to protect what they see as the economic benefits of a single market, which gives the UK access to 500 million consumers.
Staying inside the single market would mean Britain would have to keep its borders open to EU workers and continue paying into EU coffers.
Ministers have told the BBC they expect pro-EU MPs to conduct what one called a “reverse Maastricht” process – a reference to the long parliamentary campaign fought by Tory eurosceptic MPs in the 1990s against legislation deepening EU integration …
They say it would be legitimate for MPs to push for the UK to stay in the single market because the Leave campaign has refused to spell out what trading relationship it wants the UK to have with the EU in the future.
As such, a post-Brexit government could not claim it had a popular mandate for a particular model.
Read the full BBC article – and quotes from (unnamed) MPs – here.
6.52am BST
06:52
Morning briefing
Claire Phipps
Good morning and welcome to the second week of our daily EU referendum coverage.
I’m kicking things off with the morning briefing to set you up for the day ahead and steering the live blog until Andrew Sparrow takes his seat. Do come and chat in the comments below or find me on Twitter @Claire_Phipps.
The big picture
David Cameron might not want to face fellow Conservatives in debates over Britain’s future but today he’ll issue a statement with politicians usually found on the opposite side of the Commons, teaming up with Labour’s Harriet Harman, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron and Green party leader Natalie Bennett to label the Brexit campaign a “con-trick”.
Together they’ll accuse Leave campaigners – including the prime minister’s own party chums Michael Gove and Boris Johnson – of producing “contradictory statements” about Britain’s economic future outside the EU, saying the Brexiteers have put forward 23 different positions on the alternative to the single market.
While it’s all about putting party loyalties aside for the sake of the country for some, for others it’s – as the Telegraph puts it this morning – “ intensify[ing] the Tory civil war”. As Lord Tebbit told the paper:
I think it’s dangerous for the leader of the Conservative party to give greater credence to minor parties such as the Greens and the Lib Dems.
It just makes them look as though they are major political players and as though they are leaders of national parties.
Ouch.
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has said he will not share a platform with Cameron, but rejected criticism that his support for Remain has not been full-throated:
We’re not giving a blank cheque to the EU. We want a Europe where there is solidarity of socialist parties, trade unions, people who want to see a decent society, welfare state, NHS, full employment, decent rights at work.
The chancellor, George Osborne, is on a two-day trip to Belfast and Newry to encourage voters to turn out for Remain in Northern Ireland – reportedly the most pro-EU part of the UK.
The Leave campaign is also out in force again with the by-now familiar cross-party group of Johnson, Gove and Labour MP Gisela Stuart in Stratford-upon-Avon to argue that the UK will face a £2.4bn bill after the referendum to fill a black hole in EU coffers.
Vote Leave says a “backlog of unpaid bills” has left the EU with a £19.4bn debt and that Britain – responsible for 12.57% of the EU budget – would need to cover £2.4bn of that.
Labour’s Chuka Umunna said the claim was “nonsense”:
Our special status in Europe means we are protected from paying in to eurozone bailouts, we have already cut the EU budget and we have a veto over it in future.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage – no cosying up between him and the official Vote Leave campaign – has been interviewed in the FT, and says a Brexit would be just the first step in the disintegration of the entire EU.
You should also know:
Poll position
This morning a YouGov poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain will put Leave in front on 45% and Remain on 41%, according to overnight reports.
Sunday’s Observer/Opinium poll also registered a nosing-ahead for the Brexit camp, with Leave on 43% and Remain on 40%:
The poll suggests the remain camp has lost four percentage points in the last two weeks, during which Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have relentlessly campaigned on the theme of immigration.
The leave campaign appears to have picked up three percentage points. The potential in the leave campaign’s strategy is reflected in responses suggesting that two in five voters (41%) cite immigration as one of their two most important issues when deciding how to vote … Half of the 2,007 people surveyed said they believed immigration would be under better control if the UK did leave the EU .
A Daily Telegraph survey of 19,000 of its subscribers has found over two-thirds of them (69%) will be voting to leave the EU. And 42% would like to see Leave champion – and Telegraph columnist – Johnson as the next prime minister. Readers’ top concern was not, however, immigration (51% said this was “very important”) but the “sovereignty of the British parliament” (71%).
Diary
You could spend the whole day listening to politicians argue the pros and cons of the EU, if that’s your bag. (And if it is: welcome! You’ll fit right in here.)
Read these
OK, it’s unlikely you’ve not heard Boris Johnson expounding on Brexit, but he’s in the Telegraph today warning that Britain risks “the worst hangover in history” on 24 June:
You were about to strike your own small but vital blow for freedom and democracy – when you suddenly bottled it. You swerved; you shied; you jibbed; you baulked. You screwed up your eyes in the polling booth and you found yourself momentarily oppressed by the sheer weight of the Remain propaganda – all that relentless misery about this country and its inability to stand on its own two feet.
For reasons you secretly know were nonsensical, you decided to go for what the gloom-mongers had told you was the safer option. Nose held, eyes screwed tight, you voted for Remain. And now you understand why you feel that sense of morning-after shame and abject remorse: because the burble from the TV is informing you that Remain have won. Yes, by the narrowest margin you – and fellow last-minute swervers – have helped to keep us locked in the back of the minicab, with a driver who barely speaks English, going in a direction we don’t want to go.
In the Times, Clare Foges, erstwhile speechwriter to David Cameron, reminds us that not everyone knows which way they’ll vote:
As for the Leavers’ economic case, to quote Sarah Palin on Obama, it seems to amount to a lot of ‘hopey changey stuff’. There is a kind of derring-do, Dangerous Book For Boys spirit about Britannia unchained and going it alone. Won’t it be glorious? Yes, well the Charge of the Light Brigade was glorious in its own way.
On Remain-leaning days I fear the country charging into a field of economic disaster, a shredded flag aloft.
An editorial in the Financial Times says businesses need to speak up on the dangers of Brexit:
A wider diversity of pro-EU voices is urgently needed. This places a special responsibility on business leaders. Signing letters about the dangers of Brexit is not enough – every CEO ought to be speaking directly to their employees to spell out the personal consequences of leaving …
The EU referendum has split the Conservative party, polarised the country and stoked anti-establishment politics, but it has also encouraged democratic debate. Politicians must respond with facts and sound arguments. In an age of anti-politician sentiments, it is incumbent on business leaders to speak up, too. There is no more pressing issue for business than the UK’s membership of the EU. To stay silent would be grossly irresponsible.
Baffling claim of the day
Peter Mandelson emerges today to give a speech saying a vote to Remain would see an end to “grandiose, mellifluous bullshit”. While it’s hard to argue against voting for that, one can only assume he’s mixed up the EU with utopia.
Celebrity endorsement of the day
At the South Bank arts awards in London on Sunday evening, Elaine Paige broke with the culture club by saying she was likely to vote to leave the EU:
I’m of the feeling to leave, but I’m probably a minority in the arts when I say that.
The day in a tweet
Expect Remain this week to strengthen economic case by switching from macro-economics to named businesses that will up sticks if a Brexit.
If today were a nursery rhyme ...
It would be I Can Sing a Rainbow. Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue. It might be a Tory civil war, but it looks pretty.
And another thing
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