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David Cameron has put the EU ­referendum at the top of the Queen’s Speech to mark it as a top priority.

That’s probably because he misguidedly thinks he and the Tories are so popular at the moment, he’s bound to get his own way. And everyone will vote the way he wants them to, which is to stay in.

It’s going to be a rough ride. He’s forging ahead with his fantasy renegotiation – even though, as I said last week, it’s been made quite clear by the EU and Germany that it’s not ­going to happen.

Of course it won’t. But the EU doesn’t want to lose Britain, its second highest net contributor. We are good members too – we do as we are told.

Other states don’t, they pick and choose which rules they abide by.

So what will happen is this.

The EU will throw Dave a bone, give him a few scraps in the way of minor concessions, then he can appease the people and fool them into believing he has them ­eating out of his hand.

He will promise that further adjustments and compromises will be made.

Then, when everyone votes to stay in, Dave and his cohorts at the EU will turn around and go “Yah boo sucks, ha ha not really!”

We must not be fooled and we must not believe the threats and lies.

Lies like everyone will lose their jobs and all trade will be lost.

We must be told the truth.

Scaremongering and propaganda won’t do.

But I fear those who want to stay in will make sure they get their way at any cost.

The EU will throw money at it. The CBI – that bastion of all things wrong which urged the Government to join the single currency – has already waded in.

It told firms to “turn up the volume” in support of staying in.

It claimed there is “no credible alternative” to Britain remaining in.

Oh yes there is... getting out.

The CBI knows that businesses benefit from the cheap labour that EU membership gives us.

Nick Clegg – whatever ­happened to him? – was s­caremonger in chief.

He used to come out with the best lines. He would use dramatic terms such as “economic suicide” and tell us: “We need to start challenging some of the ludicrous myth-making by the isolationists now.”

He would say that EU withdrawal would leave Britain “isolated and irrelevant in our own backyard” and not taken seriously by world superpowers. What tosh.

But while the banks threaten to pull out of Britain, painting all sorts of doom-laden ­scenarios, big business leaders are speaking up.

JCB and Dyson both say it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to trade if we left.

In fact they say it would make trading with European countries and the rest of the world easier.

I know who I’d rather believe.

So bring it on, Dave. Get set, go.

Read more from Carol McGiffin HERE and in your Sunday People