After rivers of words, a hard-nosed campaign such as the UK has rarely had, and an absolutely splitting and re-alignment of political parties from year age-old format, the moment of decision has finally come.
It should not have come to this. As we stand today, on the eve of the D-day, there should have been another way to tackle the issues. It has only been inept leadership which has led to this cliff-edge decision. Whichever side wins, it will only be by the most slender of margins, so either way half of the country will be left convinced the wrong decision has been taken and refusing to accept it.
One may summarise the positions in the following manner: those on the Remain side use the economic argument while those on the Leave side use the immigration argument.
There is no doubt that any and all economic arguments conclude it is not in the UK’s advantage to leave the EU. This has been reiterated by so many influential speakers that one wonders how pig-headed the public must be to put this argument in doubt.
The day after Brexit, a shock will have been administered not just to the British economy but also to Europe and the world at large. From the certainty of being inside the Union, the British will be plunged into the uncertainty of not knowing the outcome of the future, undoubtedly difficult negotiations by a UK outside the Union and the EU.
In today’s world of open borders, it will be easy for companies to get scared off and to relocate outside Britain.
On the other hand, the Brexit supporters want, as they put it, to regain control over the UK borders. This is the anti-migration argument which, as shown in other countries, has become a very potent argument.
There is no doubt that Britain today has become a multi-cultural country. The EU accounts for only part of this influx. The first waves came from Commonwealth countries which look on Britain as the Mother Country. Even today, a vast stream of migrants still comes from Commonwealth countries and the Islamic diaspora in particular forms a substantial part of this, as shown by those who go and join Isis.
But what the Leave campaign is really against are the citizens of the other EU Member States who love to the UK on the strength of the Freedom of Movement Directive, one of the EU pillars.
There is no proof that these migrants from other EU countries are more trouble-making, less obedient, more scroungers, out to get the UK’s very comfortable social services, than other migrants. On the contrary, repeated studies have shown they pay their taxes, are ready to work as hard, if not harder, than the British.
Other EU Member States have gone round the Freedom of Movement Directive without compromising EU membership. But not the Leave campaigners.
As a result, tempers have frayed and a promising young MP who was clearly on the side of helping migrants has been killed. With her background at Oxfam and helping migrants, Jo Cox showed precisely those qualities that Brexit disavows.
There is no doubt that, whatever the outcome, the EU will move on. Businesses may move from London to the Continent and the UK will be the loser.
It may still happen that a country takes the wrong turning. The Germans elected Hitler, the Spanish Franco and maybe the US by choosing Trump will make this kind of wrong democratic decision.
Europe has been for many years in a kind of policy backwater. Even the attempts to tackle the 2008 crisis were rather slow and hard-going, and based more on austerity than on growth. That may be about to change, come Friday. Or at least we hope so.