Now the EU referendum gloves are off. Not between Remain and Leave. But between Leave and Leave or between, as they should be known, Ukip Lite and Ukip Heavy.

In the Lite corner is Vote Leave, headed by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. It is embarrassed by the aggressive anti-immigration message being pushed by the Heavy mob, led by Nigel Farage.

Vote Leave prefers its anti-immigration message to be discreet. There but not there, so to speak. Even so, the reality of its position has a way of coming to the surface.

Hence the decision by one supposed Lite supporter, Tory peer Baroness Warsi, to join the Remain campaign on the grounds of Vote Leave’s xenophobia.



Warsi’s defection was the major page 1 story in the Times (neatly fitting its Remain agenda). And its leading article noted that the resolve by campaigners to turn down the heat had failed: within days of Jo Cox’s murder the debate “resumed with all the lingering animosity intact.”

That animosity was in evidence also when David Cameron appeared on BBC’s Question Time and received, according to the Daily Mail’s front page, a “mauling over his failure to curb EU immigration” (thereby fitting the Mail’s Brexit, and anti-migrant, agenda).

The Sun also saw Cameron’s TV clash in similar terms, headlining its spread “Immigration, immigration, immigration”. It preferred to lead page 1 with a claim that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had “admitted” it would be impossible to limit EU immigration should Britain stay in the European Union (thus fitting the paper’s Brexit agenda).

Similarly, Corbyn’s remarks were given page 1 coverage by the Brexit-supporting Daily Telegraph, which also made his “commendable candour” the subject of its leading article.

The Telegraph’s main story centred, once again, on Johnson, its Brexit-campaigning columnist: “Boris: Vote Leave, change history.” It was based on Johnson’s column, “Please vote Leave on Thursday because we’ll never get this chance again.”

Newspaper editors may say they report the news, but what they report and how they report it reflects their political stance. Note how the Guardian (which favours Remain) splashed on the prime minister’s TV appearance, but covered it very differently from the Mail and Sun: “I need to make better EU case, says Cameron”.

The Guardian did report that Cameron was given “a hard time by the audience” . While he invoked the memory of Winston Churchill, a member of the audience stung him by invoking the memory of Neville Chamberlain.

The Daily Mirror, a firm Remain supporter but previously nervous about making too much of it, pulled out the stops by devoting four pages to the topic.

One spread called Farage “deluded and dangerous”. Another highlighted Cameron’s “emotional plea” not to quit on Europe (and reported his TV appearance in glowing terms).

A leading article laid into “venom-filled, rabble-rousing, trouble-stirring” Farage and accused Ukip Lite’s Gove of “swimming in the same moral cesspit.” Next to it was a column by Kevin Maguire, which began:

“I want my country back from liars who are happily sacrificing the truth in their fanatical ideological obsession with dragging Britain out of Europe.”

This is a rebirth of the old pro-European campaigning Mirror. Doubtless, it will continue over the coming three days.

Finally, I must commend a piece by Fintan O’Toole in the Irish Times, “Is England ready for self-government?” Who can argue with this single paragraph?



“Brexit is essentially Exit: if the Leave side wins the referendum it will almost certainly be without securing majorities in Scotland or Northern Ireland. For all the talk of reasserting the sovereignty of the United Kingdom, the desire to leave the European Union is driven above all by the rise of English nationalism.”

He then goes on to deliver several more home truths (from abroad). Read and appreciate.