Hard as I try, I cannot for the life of me remember much about the Common Market referendum campaign in 1975. I was at university studying politics and economics so I must have had at least a smidgen of interest in what was going on in the world beyond the lecture halls and student bars. I certainly voted (to stay in, as it happens) but of the campaign itself everything is a blank. I attended no hustings or public gatherings of note; and I do not recall the newspapers – which I read diligently – being full of stories about Cabinet ministers accusing one another of alarmism, mendacity or treachery. Forgetfulness may be the inevitable consequence of the passage of time; but I can bring plenty of other events from 40 years ago clearly to mind so why not this momentous occasion to decide the future of the nation?

Maybe it was because I was young. Youthful apathy is certainly worrying campaigners to stay in the EU because the key to this referendum is turnout. The under 30s, who are most in favour of membership, are the least likely to vote while their parents and grandparents incline to Euroscepticism and are also more likely to make the trip to the polling station. Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, said this generational divide could deny our young people their birthright of EU membership unless they could be persuaded to get out and counter the antediluvian attitudes of their elders.