Seizing the moral high-ground: David Cameron

The sun will come up on Friday morning whatever the result of the referendum. But Leave or Remain, Britain will never be the same country again.

We face a stark choice. Do we vote to become once more the ultimate masters of our own destiny, with the power to make our laws and control our own borders?

Or do we conclude that we are incapable of running our own affairs and are better off as a meek dependency of an ever-expanding European superstate?

That's the nub of the argument, not the wildly alarmist horror stories which have characterised the risible propaganda pumped out by Remain. This has always been about democracy and self-determination, not money. You can't put a price on independence and national sovereignty.

Only a fool would predict the result with any certainty, even at this late stage. But if Remain prevails, we will have missed an historic opportunity to escape from the disaster movie unfolding across Europe. The EU has brought economic ruin to some member states and condemned a generation of young people to a lifetime of unemployment.

Angela Merkel's suicidal, unilateral decision to invite millions of Middle Eastern and North African migrants to take advantage of Europe's open borders and advanced welfare systems will have cultural and demographic repercussions for decades to come.

It's no good arguing that because Britain is not part of the Schengen free-movement treaty, we will be unaffected by this huge population upheaval. Once the newcomers have been granted EU citizenship we shall be powerless to prevent them moving here if we decide to stay.

Already our so-called 'partners' are giving migrants assisted passage to Northern France, from where they try daily to enter Britain illegally. A vote to remain will also shackle us to the pernicious Human Rights Act, which prevents us deporting foreign rapists, murderers and terrorists.

But rather than address these serious matters, the pro-EU brigade have decided simply to scream 'racist' at those worried about the scale of immigration. They have no convincing arguments or solutions so they resort to knee-jerk smears instead.

Remainers always seek to seize the moral high-ground and portray their opponents as xenophobic extremists. Just look at the reprehensible manner in which some of them have tried to blame the Brexit campaign for the ghastly murder of the young Labour MP Jo Cox and have exploited her death for their own political ends.

There is an intellectual snobbery about Remain, which was on graphic display last week when Bob Geldof and a boatload of sneering sycophants tried to disrupt a protest by fishermen complaining about the destruction of their industry by the EU bureaucracy. Geldof was seen flicking V signs and obscene gestures on his boat

Whatever the result of the referendum, George Osborne can forget about succeeding Cameron as Prime Minister after his disgraceful conduct during this referendum campaign

There is an intellectual snobbery about Remain, which was on graphic display last week when Bob Geldof and a boatload of sneering sycophants tried to disrupt a protest by fishermen complaining about the destruction of their industry by the EU bureaucracy.

This ship of fools — endorsed by Call Me Dave and financed by PR mogul Matthew Freud — summed up the disdainful attitude of the Europhiles towards those who want to Leave.

On one side, the vested interests of Luvvie Land, big business, merchant banks and almost the entire political class. On the other, ordinary working people excluded from the system and the corridors of power and condemned to suffer from the worst excesses of the EU juggernaut.

A woman in a leopard-print outfit waved her matching stiletto-heeled shoe in the direction of the Brexiteers, tongue poking out for good effect like a precocious four-year-old brandishing her new dolly in the face of a less-fortunate classmate.

Her fancy footwear probably cost more than most of these fishermen bring home in a month, hampered as they are by strict quotas and outright bans imposed by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

At the centre of it all, multi-millionaire Geldof himself, an ocean-going hypocrite in a Sybil Fawlty hat and an expensive designer shirt, flicking V-signs at the proles. Geldof, of course, came to prominence as a global charity campaigner through Live Aid, a worthy attempt to alleviate poverty in Africa.

Already our so-called 'partners' are giving migrants assisted passage to Northern France, from where they try daily to enter Britain illegally. Migrants walk at a site dubbed the 'New Jungle' in Calais

Surely if he really was on the side of the underdog and the dispossessed, Geldof would be lining up alongside Britain's hard-hit fishermen — not traducing them from the deck of a luxury cruiser in the company of a motley crew of metropolitan muppets.

But this wasn't about fishing rights, it was about Geldof and the Remain campaign flaunting their imagined intellectual superiority in the face of the peasants who want to leave the EU.

Put aside the fact that Geldof, as an Irish citizen, shouldn't even be allowed to vote in this referendum. Why should he give a monkey's about 1,000 years of British history and liberty? He's also a non-dom, which means that, unlike the rest of us, he can avoid paying UK tax on his international earnings.

If he wants a say in Britain's future, surely the least he can do is pay all his taxes here.

The same goes for Richard Branson, currently residing in the Virgin Islands. So many of those instructing us to vote Remain represent their own selfish interests — whether parasitic merchant banks such as Goldman Sachs or Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister who now heads the International Monetary Fund.

They all claim to be able to see the future, but none of them foresaw the global financial crash in 2008 and most warned of the dire consequences for Britain if we didn't join the euro. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.

As I have conceded previously, there was an honourable case to be made for remaining in a reformed EU. But there is no reform on offer. David Cameron was humiliated when he tried to squeeze a few modest concessions from our 'partners'.

Boris Johnson, pictured, along with Michael Gove, has conducted an uplifting, optimistic campaign

He returned with the worst deal since the Red Indians sold Manhattan for a string of beads — giving the lie once and for all to the claims about Britain's 'influence' in Europe.

Shortly before those negotiations he said he was prepared to lead the Leave campaign if he didn't get what he wanted.

So why the change of heart? My guess is that he's already looking to his post-No 10 future, which is likely to revolve around a few well-remunerated consultancies from global companies such as, er, Goldman Sachs.

As for Boy George, author of the most ridiculous, blood-curdling warnings, maybe he fancies a lucrative sinecure at the IMF or the World Bank. Whatever the result of the referendum, he can forget about succeeding Cameron as Prime Minister after his disgraceful conduct during this referendum campaign.

But what's in it for William Hague, the worst of the EU turncoats, who built a career on his hostility to the entire European project but now urges us to Remain? Nato secretary-general, perhaps? Something at the UN, so he can carry on hobnobbing with Angelina Jolie?

Note also the stark contrast between vast, multi-national corporations lobbying for Remain — so they can use their heft in Brussels to stifle competition — and those home-grown entrepreneurs who have risked their own money and built their own businesses from the ground up, most of whom now favour leaving the EU.

Then there are those other self-regarding Establishment grandees siding with Remain simply because they can't stand the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister. They're pathetic.

Actually, while some sections of the Leave campaign have also been guilty of strident scaremongering, Boris, along with Michael Gove, has conducted an uplifting, optimistic campaign — unlike the hysterical prophets of doom on the Remain side, who think we are all too stupid to be trusted to make the right decision.

Trying to frighten the elderly into thinking they were going to lose their pensions if they dared to vote Leave was especially despicable.

Of course, getting out of the EU contains an element of risk. But no more so than voting to stay In.

One thing which is certain is that if we vote Remain, Brussels will take it as a signal to power ahead with ever closer union, locking us tighter still into an anti-democratic, corrupt federal straitjacket from which there is no escape.

How you vote on Thursday depends on whether you have confidence that Britain — one of the most successful trading nations the world has ever seen — can be trusted to run her own economy, cut her own deals, pass her own laws and control her own borders, free from foreign interference.

I think we can, indeed must, even if those currently in power don't.

Watching those hardy fishermen on the Thames last week, I was reminded of Churchill's statement: 'If Britain must choose between Europe and the open sea, she must always choose the open sea.'