A statement

The Spirit of Great Britain

I'm taking the day off today. Possibly tomorrow as well. While today is a busy day for Brexit traffic, it won't be the last and it's covered. Keeping the fire burning on the slow days is where I come in.

I have mixed emotions today. There was a battle for the heart and soul of the Leave campaign. The voice of reason lost that battle. All of the Leave outfits are an embarrassing shower. It's difficult to say which one is the worst. They all deserve to lose.

They are also the reason we are having a June referendum. I have been fairly insistent that there will be a long game because Cameron in any other circumstances could not go to the country with such a weak set of "reforms". But he has calculated that the Leave campaign is not organised enough to present any real threat to him. That is not an unreasonable estimation.

So, on that score, I was wrong.

However - the thesis was broadly correct. This blog said that Cameron would come to us with an offer of a different relationship. I suspected it would be the two tier Europe - which would have been major. That would have been the end of it. What he has presented is not that. It's something else. It's empty. Non-binding. Weak.

And so while I have made bleak prognostications, we still have a chance. A slim one in that the Leave campaigns will be a major drag. We'd be better off if they said nothing. It's like trying to take off with the brake parachute fully deployed.

If we lose, the main effort of campaigners should be to seek a change in the law so that no public funds are made available for future referendums. There is an essay right there, but the lessons should be immediate and obvious.

In this, I almost want to see a defeat purely to see the guilty get what they deserve. But that would be churlish and I still want to win. As much as anything, if we do win, I will still have the glorious satisfaction of watching the outrage of Kippers when they realise that Brexit does not reduce immigration or close the borders.

In any case, we are now in a state of total war - where I will have to hold my nose and fight with those people whom I despise utterly. There is no point in attacking the Leave campaigns anymore. They are what they are - and there is no fixing that. In any case, efforts to organise an effective campaign came far too late.

That does not mean I am going to "show unity". I will just continue to make my case that Brexit is desirable, achievable and without intolerable risk. That message will be undermined by the inferences of mainstream Leave messages, but being angry about that is like raging at the sky for being blue. All I can do now is just do what I do - for whatever that is worth.

Cameron has taken a huge gamble that people will be taken in by his lies. Against a backdrop of fear-mongering and misdirection he thinks he is in with a good chance. Consequently, everything we do must be geared toward exposing Cameron as the fraud he is. The secondary mission should be to make the Tories pay. This insult cannot go unanswered.

I still have little hope that we will win, but we are in kitchen sink territory - and I am going to fight to win all the same. I have come too far to walk away from this fight now. At the very least, a respectable loss will keep the issue burning, and so long as that is the case, no government can expect an easy ride until the matter is properly resolved.

The only certainty in this is that this issue will not go away because the people who know what democracy is will never be satisfied with membership of the EU.

In this, I thank all of my readers and supporters for the tremendous support shown so far. We did what we could. Now we are on the final stretch. We no longer have the luxury of infighting and navel-gazing. We must try to overlook our differences and shelve our disputes. They can wait.

There is all the time in the world to settle scores after the vote - and that will be a bloody reckoning where the truth will out. In that, I have faith that the guilty will be named and held to account. In the meantime, we have a job to do. You know what you have to do. I stand with you. Let's get it done.