When a country is forced to take a decision as consequential as leaving or remaining in the union of its continent, an immense cast of players will have their moment. But just four characters who have known each other intimately over decades of friendship, rivalry and entitlement, dominate the battle over Britain. At stake is their place in what passes for history in today’s United Kingdom. But so far, rather then offering the country a great debate their clash is closer to a pantomime: We are stronger in! Oh no we’re not! Oh yes we are! We are stronger out! Oh no we’re not! Oh yes we are!
As the spectacle is forced upon them, members of the public are asking themselves why they pay their leaders to behave like this. Meanwhile, it seems their homes are being robbed via their back doors. I showed last week how David Cameron’s decision to hold the referendum was forced on him by circumstances and how this led him to commit the outrage of telling voters he thought it would be viable for Britain to leave while telling Chancellor Merkel he did not mean this. But if the referendum is contingent and poorly spun it may also prove convenient as a distraction. As the campaign got underway it was announced that Britain’s quarterly balance of payments deficit with the rest of the world crashed, going down from £20.1 billion to £32.7 billion in the last three months of 2015, equal to to 7.0% of gross domestic product, “the largest proportion since quarterly records began”.
