The EU referendum campaign is nearing it's climax and I would describe it as a battle, like so many others, between the cavaliers and roundheads. The Remain campaign are the roundheads; dull and negative and very good at putting together structures and committees but lacking the vision, enthusiasm, belief and optimism that characterises the Leave team.
Those of us backing Leave see Britain's future as playing a full role in the wider world, no longer tied to the stagnant economies of Europe many of which are in recession but looking to expand our contacts and trade with the growing economies of India, China, Asia and beyond. They are expanding whilst here in Europe, where unemployment, especially youth unemployment is rising in many countries and the Eurozone could collapse in the not too distant future the future is more uncertain. In that event the further removed we are from the Union the better. It's worth noting that the former Labour Foreign Secretary - a lifelong pro-European is now backing Brexit because he fears financial collapse in the Eurozone.
Over the years we have seen prime ministers returning from Euro summits claiming they have negotiated a better deal; the UK they would say has secured an 'opt-out' of this policy or that. Why are we so keen on opting-out? Because policies designed for 28 countries do not best suit Britain. Indeed as George Eustice, the Fisheries and Agriculture Minister said in Cleethorpes last week 'if we are so keen on opting out and all the opt-outs are so good for us why don't we just opt out of the whole lot?'
The pace of the campaign is certainly hotting up with ministers criss-crossing the country on both sides of the argument and it's clearly the cavaliers who the public warm to. Just as fascinating as what the outcome of the vote will be is the impact it will have on the political scene over the next few years.
At least the Conservatives are speaking up for both sides since it is clear that the British public is roughly equally divided between Remain and Leave it's essential that the political parties speak for all those that they represent. We now have a situation in which the main Opposition party, Labour, is not speaking for millions of its supporters. I would say that based on my conversations with Labour supporters in this area a majority of them favour the Leave side.
How will this change politics in the years following the referendum? This is the big unknown and will be fascinating to watch.
Part of the fascination will surround individuals. Much as politics is about parties and policies we are all keen to see who survives and prospers and who falls out of public favour.
On the cavaliers side we have larger than life characters such as Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Priti Patel and others. The roundheads have capable but less charismatic individuals such as Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Jeremy Corbyn.
Most MPs have declared for one side or the other based on genuine convictions though it would be foolish to assume that none had not considered which side was most likely to win and hope to find themselves on the that side. There are also those who have compromised themselves following years with one known position and now pretending to campaign on the other side - the public can see through these individuals. As it happens all the ones I can think of I would put in the roundhead camp.
And so the campaign moves on with the TV debates and Question Times to come. These can have a dramatic but often not a lasting impact. Remember Nick Clegg in 2010; for a few days everyone 'agreed with Nick' but it was relatively short-lived. Yes they did pretty well in the election - getting into government even but how much that was down to a single TV appearance is open to doubt. Perhaps the country had already made its mind up that Gordon Brown and Labour had had their day but that their was still some uncertainty about the Tories.
A single issue referendum should be much simpler for the politicians to put over the pros and cons. There's no need to talk about housing, the local economy, schools, hospitals and so on. Or is there? The free movement rule affects all of these; school places, GP appointments, wages, housing waiting lists.
It's proving an epic political event; the debate has being pretty poor in the early stages but now the basic questions are being asked. Will they be answered? If not, the safe option is to vote with the cavaliers.