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EU referendum is like the Time Warp

EU referendum is like the Time Warp

There are tirades from the left and diatribes from the right. With their hands on their hips, politicians are up all night. But it’s the rhetorical thrust that really drives you insane, so let’s do the time warp again.

As the EU referendum campaign countdown approaches, does anyone else feel like we’ve done this all before?

The day before the vote on Scottish independence, Gordon Brown delivered a barnstorming speech which contained much of the passion many observers thought the Better Together campaign had previously lacked.

Its key line was this: “And tell them that our patriotic vision is bigger than nationalism; we want Scotland not leaving the UK but leading the UK and through leading the UK, leading in the world.”

Now the former Prime Minister has made his first foray into the debate on whether Britain should stay tethered to Brussels and the other 27 member states.

In a column for a tabloid newspaper, the ex-Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP used the word “lead” six times.

They payoff is this: “If we want something done, Europe is where we can best carry influence and where we can do most good, for ourselves and the world.”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s almost as recognisable as a member of the Royal Family making a coded intervention in an unexpected setting.

I’m looking at you, Duke of Cambridge, despite Kensington Palace insisting that speech he made earlier this week “wasn’t about Europe”.

We even have a new, enhanced version of Project Fear, the moniker Better Together rather clumsily bestowed upon itself during the run-up to September 2014.

Scotland Stronger in Europe, a north of the border equivalent to the unfortunately titled Britain Stronger in Europe (BSE? Seriously? No one checked the acronym?), may argue they are “project cheer” but their words say otherwise.

Within four minutes of the jaunty claim being made, the group’s chairwoman, Professor Mona Siddiqui, asked: “With all the global risks we face just now, do we want to take another risk?”

And we’ve got businesses piling in behind Remain, as the CBI apparently fails to learn the lesson that “big” companies opening their mouths to tell us little people what to do doesn’t exactly shake off the “unelected establishment” perception of a campaign.

Oh and of course, we have the campaigns fighting among themselves.

Those on the left of Remain can’t help but poke sticks at David Cameron.

Leavers, meanwhile, resemble ferrets trapped in a tiny bag riled up on lager and steroids who have just decided they all fancy the same girl.

One big difference is the reversal in rhetoric from those campaigning.

Watching the SNP scramble to argue the advantages of being part of a bigger union, with its safety net and job security, tickles the funny bone.

You can add Eurosceptic Tories and Ukip getting ideological about national sovereignty into that category too.

Could it be that Scotland’s apparent desire to stay in the EU is less about ideology and more about being bored with questions of nationalism which now understandably grip England?

And perhaps as importantly will Alex Salmond and Nigel Farage just swap Scottish scripts if their EU debate goes ahead?