We have heard little about the facts and analysis supporting staying or going since this campaign began. Instead there is an endless refrain from both sides complaining about some person somewhere expressing a preference for the opposite view, when they are supposed to be impartial. This advances the cause of neither, while at the same time offering little practical information to enable undecided voters to make up their minds.
A referendum is not the same as an election when a contest takes place to establish who shall have a mandate to govern. A referendum is a national conversation to arrive at a conclusion about the future of the country. There are two sides, but there are not two opposing sides. Either option may work in the long term, but in different ways and with different advantages. Moreover in the short term one option may create more uncertainties and greater risks to national prosperity than the other.
What people need is hard facts, cool analysis, well argued opinions and measured judgements. Then they can themselves weigh up how they wish to vote. It is the duty of bankers, ministers, lawyers and business to expose the issues in their field of expertise. Some will highlight this and others that. But everybody engages because the outcome will affect us all. There will be no winning side in the party political sense.
So grumbling about apparent leanings this way and that are both pointless and unnecessary. They seem to come from Leave more than Remain. It is from Leave we still wait to hear of a single hard fact of what exactly their proposition offers. Nostalgic references to sovereignty and emotional acclamations of the Great in Britishness are simply not enough.