Referendum must be fair

THIS newspaper has said all along that the EU referendum must be held freely and fairly. The question must be clear and unbiased. Ministers must be given freedom to vote and campaign however they wish, just as in 1975. The machinery and the resources of the state must not be deployed on either side.

For the result of the vote to be respected by all parties it must be a fair fight. The suggestion that it has been rigged or one side has been favoured will only lead to bitter recriminations. Such an outcome would not put the debate to rest.

If the Prime Minister really trusts the British people to decide he must ensure the process is impartial. YLAN’S story is all the more tragic in that by the time he and his family set off on their doomed attempt to reach Greece they were already safe from the Syrian civil war: they were in Turkey. True, Kurds can find themselves unwelcome in Turkey and they might have had expectations of a better life in Europe, but at the point the family decided to set off in an unseaworthy vessel their lives were not in danger.

British and EU policy ought to be to dissuade migrants from making reckless journeys in the first place, and to prosecute the gangs conning people out of their savings to transport them in lethal conditions.

This can be achieved by two means: dealing with the refugee crises as close to their source as possible, thereby reducing the need for refugees to travel, and by strict enforcement of existing immigration law so as to dissuade economic migrants from taking advantage of the situation. Instead, policy over the past few months has been going in the opposite direction. The World Food Pro-