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Oh dear, I had thought that those who favour exiting the EU had begun to provide more in the way of evidence and rational argument, but it seems that, in latter posts, we are back to the same unthinking jibes as before. I can see that this has not been helped by equally unthinking posts by some remainers (which I would distance myself from), that have encouraged a slanging match (pots and kettles spring to mind). And I am afraid that, if the communications put out by the "anti-Unionists" during the referendum campaign are supposed to have been a model of "temperateness and rationality", as against the "bitterness and wild exaggerations" of EU supporters, then I cannot think we are talking about the same referendum. Just one instance of the reverse - £350 million a week available for the NHS if we leave the EU was trumpeted as one of the benefits of leaving, but this now turns out to be quite false (as admitted by even Nigel Farage, though only after the vote was in). It was wild exaggerations like this and tabloid alarmist campaign about immigration that temperate supporters of the EU are most aggrieved about.

The arguments now being put forward in favour of the Leave process seem to revolve around how well the stock market is currently performing. But that tells us nothing about what the situation will be in two years after the article 50 notice is given, let alone in the decades after that. Moreover, we are still in the EU, so that the UK's current situation, including low unemployment and moderate growth, can hardly be cited as one of the benefits of leaving the EU. We are nowhere near being on our own yet.

The trouble is that, in terms of economic benefits, neither side can say what the outcome will be in the longer term. My point is simply that, as a matter of principle, it is better for democratically organised nation states to pursue a strategy of enlightened co-operation rather than turn their backs on each other. If the EU now falls apart, Europe will once again turn into a group of self-serving countries, with their own separate agendas, seeking whatever advantage they can gain against each other. And, as I have suggested previously, if the EU collapses then how long will it take for NATO to unravel, particularly with a Trump administration in the US? Even Mr Crawford fears WW3 as an outcome of the EU meltdown he predicts. That is the last thing any of us wants, surely, yet there is no explanation of how our leaving the EU will somehow make everything alright.