Here is my piece today for the Telegraph as the referendum campaign staggers over the line.

Some good stuff:

Back in the mid-2000s, Tony Blair addressed the annual gathering of British ambassadors. In the Q&A our then Ambassador in Paris warned the Prime Minister that London’s EU policies were going down badly in Paris.

In reply, Tony Blair said something fascinating and subtle: “Well, I think you’ve been in Paris a bit too long, John! At some point you have to make an almost aesthetic choice about what you’re trying to do and what you are.”

What are we trying to do? What are we? Big questions. The referendum campaign has been rancorous if not revolting precisely because there is no agreement on either. The Remain and Leave camps instead struggle to “frame” the debate to suit their arguments.

Money. Security. Sovereignty. Freedom. Identity. Fear. Hope.

Beware – Brexit is a crazy leap into the dark! No – it’s a confident stride into the light!

Let’s be Illinois! No – let’s be Canada!

More:

Still, the Remain camp have two specific arguments that make Eurosceptics uneasy

It’s been a good bet for the last thousand years or so to find out what Vladimir Putin wants you to do, then not do that. He’ll be delighted to see the EU fragmenting – does the UK really want to risk that?

Just say you win this referendum. What’s your plan for managing the ensuing turmoil? How to negotiate a sensible new relationship with the EU when every EU leader hates us for creating an omnishambles?

But both questions assume formidable EU irrationality.  Is the EU so fragile that it can’t muster a new formula for 27 member states plus the UK joining forces with Washington and others to stand firm against Russia in Ukraine and elsewhere? Will EU leaders react to a Brexit vote by acting against their own interests and “punishing” London and themselves?

Those assumptions may not be wrong. Maybe the EU now can’t act wisely in the face of so many simultaneous crises. But is that a reason for forlornly staying in it, or for backing politely out of the madhouse?

The Leave camp prod Remain in the ribs:

You say that we should Remain and reform and lead the EU from within. But where are your plans to reform the EU and, for example, recalibrate migration? Isn’t the EU unreformable, stuck on the steep sand-dune of history and unable to move without sliding backwards? What makes you think anyone else wants UK leadership?

To which answers come there none.

Conclusion:

As for Americans up to President Obama urging us to stay where we are, they of all people ought to know that political legitimacy comes only from the consent of the governed.

The idea of “the consent of the governed” is the biggest moral idea in politics and life. It’s all about Tony Blair’s aesthetic choice: what you and your country are, and what each wants to be and do…

Read the whole thing.