If I lived in Britain, I am sure that I would be miffed occasionally by silly, constraining or misfitting rules that emanate from the centre, in Brussels. I am certain that I would be dubious about a multi-national body trumping my own Parliament in Westminster, suspicious at a loss of national identity and perhaps even, when dark emotion was allowed to rise and rule, worried about immigration.

But it is unlikely, in the cool light of a rational-thinking dawn, that I would vote to leave the EU. The benefits that membership have brought to the British economy are difficult to count. Being the citizen of a many-nationed entity allows huge opportunity, not only for work and play, but for the very idea of being. Seventy years ago Europe was embroiled in the second great conflagration in a generation and the European project was an attempt to foreclose on a third chapter. Britain joined a little later and at a time when the British economy and prestige was historically low. Today Britain punches well above its weight and has a relatively robust economy. But half its population are toying with the idea of going it alone, even when the risks are so clearly evident, not only for a diminished Britain, but for a potentially broken United Kingdom.

I hope that good sense prevails.