Eu referendum

Wednesday

Peter Jones

Cicero’s Brexit moment

If Remain has won, for all the political and financial flurries, it will be business as usual for us plebs. But such is the EU’s octopus-like embrace, so it will be if the Leavers win, creating much disillusionment. Cicero felt equally impotent at a similarly dramatic turning point — the assassination of EUlius Caesar. Cicero had long despaired at the slow collapse of the ‘free’ republic and the rise of the tyrant Caesar. ‘We ought to have resisted him while he was weak — then it would have been easy,’ Cicero wrote in a letter. When Caesar started the civil war in 49 BC, he exclaimed ‘Are we talking about a

Melissa Kite

Real life | 22 June 2016

The cottage in Surrey has fallen through, for the time being at least. Maybe I am going to be a country girl again at some point, but for now it’s looking like I will have to remain a while longer in Bal-ham, gazing longingly towards the south. The owners of the cottage in Ripley pulled out, after I failed to sell my flat quickly enough. To be fair, I had promised I would be under offer within days, because that is how it has always been before. I have had the place on the market twice in the past two years, and both times it was snapped up in a

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 22 June 2016

Commentators have complained about this referendum — its ‘lies’, bad manners, bitterness. Without exactly disagreeing, I would nevertheless argue that it has performed at least one of the roles intended, which is to encourage people to consider the issue. If you are actively engaged in political debate, as candidate, activist, journalist etc, you believe (often erroneously) that you have thought through the big questions. If you are an unpolitical voter, you often haven’t. This is particularly true of the European question because, for 40 years, enormous efforts have been made by all the political parties to discourage you. David Cameron only finally conceded to us the right to have our

Andrew Roberts

Diary – 22 June 2016

It was a nice touch that MPs sat in each other’s seats in the Commons during the tributes to Jo Cox on Monday. I hope it helped remind Tories where they’ll be sitting permanently after 2020 if they don’t bind the party’s wounds on Friday. If Remain wins, then everyone must coalesce around David Cameron; if it’s Leave then Michael Gove. These things were managed much better before 1965 when the Queen decided on Tory leaders. For all his reservations about the premiership, Gove wouldn’t refuse Her Majesty’s request to form a government, not in the year of her 90th birthday. How do you think Jeremy Corbyn voted in the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why all the certainty about the referendum result?

Right at the start of this campaign, a senior figure at Vote Leave told me that if they were level in the opinion polls on referendum day, they would win. Their view was that differential turnout, with their voters being more enthusiastic, would overcome any status-quo bias. Well, the last Opinium poll has Leave on 45%, Remain on 44% with 9% as don’t knows. Now, we should remember that polls aren’t all knowing and that one earlier today had Remain ahead. Opinium polls are conducted online, and online ones tend to be more favourable to Leave. There are still some more polls to come—and they may be better for Remain than Opinium.

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Coffee House Shots: The final countdown

There are now only hours until the polls open in the EU referendum. But the campaigning has continued today right up until the wire as both ‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ do their best to win every vote in what looks set to be a close contest. David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn, Sadiq Khan and Boris Johnson have been across the airwaves as they attempt to convince the public which way they should vote. It’s not only political figures from the UK who have had their say, though: Jean Claude Juncker has insisted Britain would not be getting a new reform package after tomorrow’s vote. Was it wise for him to speak out?

James Bartholomew

Boris Johnson’s closing speech was the defining moment of the campaign

For me, last night provided the defining moment of the campaign. I was in the audience of 6,000 or so at the Wembley Arena listening to the final major debate, hosted by David Dimbleby. As far as I could tell, the evening was turning into a win on points for Vote Leave. Ruth Davidson, for the Remainers, had some moments of real success. She banged out a long list of military people who maintained that Britain would be safer within the European Union. She said she was going to take the words of these experts seriously even if the Leave speakers did not. But Andrea Leadsom, for the Leave side,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What next for Ukip after the EU referendum?

For someone who has spent his whole life building up to the referendum, Nigel Farage has had a rather patchy campaign. On the one hand, he has performed reasonably well in his TV question time slot, exceeding the expectations of those in the Leave camp who were dismayed that ITV had signed up the Ukip leader to its referendum programme. But on the other, he has unveiled a poster that bears striking similarities to ones used by the Nazis and has been shunned by the official Leave campaign. Today, the Ukip leader gave his final speech of a campaign that he has spent his political life pushing for. At one

Matthew Lynn Matthew Lynn

If Brexit is the result, start buying the market

It is four o’clock on Friday morning. The early returns suggest Leave is edging ahead. You’ve just seen a tweet that Peter Mandelson has fled the country, and that Boris Johnson has been seen pencilling in the names of his cabinet. What is the first thing you do? Rush down to Sainsbury’s and stock up on olives before they get banned? Text that Polish builder for some final painting and decorating before he gets sent home? Perhaps. But actually what you should do is very simple. Get on the phone to your broker, or more realistically go online, and get ready to start buying the FTSE, the pound, and every

Ben Kew

The Spectator’s Guide to EU Referendum day (and night)

Britain goes to the polls tomorrow for the most important vote in a generation, as the country decides whether it would like to remain part of the European Union, or leave. But what will happen on the day itself? And where are the key areas to watch out for overnight? Here, The Spectator has put together a run-through of what to look out for and when we can expect to find out the results: Thursday 23rd June 7.00am Polling stations open across the UK. Voters will be asked the question: Should Britain remain a member of the European Union, or Leave the European Union? 10.00pm Polling stations close and the

Nicholas Farrell Nicholas Farrell

Spare a thought for the proud Brits denied tomorrow’s vote

I live in Italy at the heart of the European Union and have witnessed first hand how the euro has destroyed La Dolce Vita and reduced the Italian economy to basket case status. But even though I am a British citizen and probably better equipped than most to see just how awful the EU is, I am not allowed to vote in the referendum tomorrow. Why? Because I have not been registered to vote in the UK within the past 15 years. I may live abroad but I remain proudly British. I fly a Union Jack – bought in a ship’s chandlers in the port of Ravenna where the exiled poet Dante

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The PM boils his entire referendum campaign into a single word. But will it convince voters?

David Cameron has boiled down his entire EU referendum campaign into a single word: together. The Prime Minister made one of his final pitches to Britain on the Today programme just now. But despite doing his best to put forward the positive case for staying in, he still came unstuck on the age-old issue of migration. He was repeatedly quizzed on his net migration target to reduce numbers to the tens of thousands. We knew before that this is, to say the least, a tricky subject for Cameron. And he didn’t offer much in the way of substance to salve voters’ worries. Instead, when immigration came up, he flipped the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Would a narrow win for ‘Leave’ be useful in getting a better post-Brexit deal?

In less than 24 hours, the polling booths will finally open. We’ve seen today the now familiar raft of letters from both sides calling on people to vote ‘Remain’ or back Brexit. 51 FTSE have signed a letter saying they think the UK should stay in the European Union. Whilst Tate and Lyle Sugars said Brexit would be the best way ahead for its business in a message to employees. But amidst this final push for votes, the polls show that tomorrow’s referendum will likely be an even race: the ‘What UK think’s’ poll of polls has ‘Remain’ on 51 per cent and ‘Leave’ on 49 per cent. So what

Steerpike Steerpike

Is it a case of Tim-Nice-But-Dim for Remain?

Another day, another Brexit poll. This time YouGov claim to have discovered what a name can tell you about someone’s voting tendency. If you’re called Sheila or Graham you’re most likely to vote Leave, whereas those by the name of Kathryn and Samantha are most likely to fall into the undecided category. However, the poll finding that caught Mr S’s eye relates to Remain. It claims that when it comes to men, those by the name of Tim are most likely to plump for In. So, is it a case of Tim-Nice-But-Dim for Remain? Harry Enfield’s Old Ardinian comic creation — a parody of pleasant yet intellectually challenged public schoolboys — said ‘yah to the euro’ back in 2002 (before admitting

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Business holds the antidote to acts of voter insanity on both sides of the Atlantic

Good news: ‘My sources in the Gulf tell me they’re poised with big cash to buy into sterling, UK equities and property on any weakness,’ says an email from a reader who does business across the Middle East. Will the phenomenon I once called ‘the Curse of Qatar’ be the horse that pulls us out of the post-referendum quagmire and tramples the short-sellers? Might it even be strong enough to save the professional services firm, dependent on inward investors, whose owner told me he expects to make 50 of his 180 staff redundant if the vote goes the wrong way? We have flirted with what the Washington Post called ‘an

Tuesday

The Spectator

Highlights: EU referendum Wembley debate

Boris Johnson, for Leave, and his successor as London Mayor Sadiq Khan, for Remain, were among six panellists who took part in the two-hour BBC debate at Wembley Arena. And here’s the coverage from the evening as it played out…

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Coffee House shots: Who will triumph in tonight’s final TV showdown?

As many as eight million people are expected to tune into tonight’s BBC Brexit debate, where Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan and Ruth Davidson will battle it out in their final attempt to win over voters ahead of the referendum. The last time Boris appeared in a TV debate, Remain’s ‘Operation batter Boris’ was mobilised in a misguided attempt to discredit the former Mayor of London. So can we expect more of the same tonight? On today’s Coffee House Shots, James Forsyth tells Fraser Nelson: ‘Ruth Davidson is a fierce debater. She is combative, she goes for people. It would be very surprising if she didn’t go for Boris. The one

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron uses Downing Street to say ‘Brits don’t quit’

David Cameron has just given a rather bizarre statement in Downing Street pleading with voters to back Remain on Thursday. It was rather bizarre firstly because it didn’t contain anything new at all, and was just a restatement of the case for staying in the bloc, and secondly because it was in Downing Street, which is government property. The guidance from the Cabinet Office states that: ‘Government property should not be used for campaigning. Requests from campaigning groups to use government buildings for campaign purposes must be declined.’ Number 10 sources say that the clear guidance from officials was that this statement was within the rules. And Vote Leave sources

Niall Ferguson

Take it from a divorcee: Brexit will cost you dear

I suppose there are such things as amicable divorces. Mine wasn’t. Like the First World War, it was fought for more than four years, and ended with the Treaty of Versailles (by which I mean that it imposed territorial losses and the payment of annual reparations for a very long time). Which brings me to Brexit, the ultimate divorce. Leave aside the arguments based on economics. Leave aside history, too. Instead, permit me to get personal. You want to get a divorce from Europe? Very well, let me explain what divorce is like. Now, I get how you feel. You’ve reached the point when you just can’t stand the EU

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Victoria Beckham: ‘The Euro-bureaucrats are destroying every bit of national identity’

Victoria Beckham has said today she wants Britain to remain a member of the European Union. But ‘Posh Spice’ hasn’t always been so keen on the EU. In this Spectator piece from December 1996, Victoria described how she thought the ‘Euro-bureaucrats are destroying every bit of national identity’. Here’s what she had to say in an interview with Simon Sebag Montefiore: Interview the Spice Girls, I thought. But the Spice Girls are interviewed all the time. My interview, however, would be different. I would ask only questions that I would ask Mr Major, Mr Blair, Mr Heseltine or any other politician. Only one thing worried me about this plan. What