Spare us another 17 weeks of squalid spin

A WEEK to the day since David Cameron fired the starting gun for the EU referendum campaign – and already hope is vanishing of a full, fair and honest debate on perhaps the most vital issue we will ever have to decide.

Every trick in the book, every cog of the government machine, has been mobilised to dupe voters and skew the debate in favour of the remain camp.

Cabinet Secretary ‘Sir Cover-Up’ Jeremy Heywood has even ordered civil servants to conceal facts and figures from ministers who want to leave the EU, while pumping out propaganda for the other side. Meanwhile, tame business leaders (mostly former advocates of joining the catastrophic euro) have been cajoled into signing No 10’s letters, scaremongering about the risks of withdrawal.

Extraordinarily, even ex-armed services chiefs – including one whose name was used against his wishes! – have been roped in to endorse the scares.

Think of Downing Street’s wrath in the past, when supposedly impartial military leaders entered the political fray. Yet now they are positively encouraged.

Most insidious of all is the message, explicit or not, that signing a pro-EU letter will do no harm when it comes to gongs. We all know about cash for honours. Now it’s signatures for honours.

Don’t such underhand tactics make all the more admirable those who have resisted threats and blandishments and spoken up for their convictions?

All praise, then, to Mr Cameron’s former patron, Lord Howard, who says Britain should have the ‘self-belief’ to vote for out – and force the ‘outdated, flawed and failing’ EU to think again. And good for BA chief Willie Walsh for telling the truth as he sees it – that Brexit would have ‘no material impact’ on his industry.

Let’s hear more voices speaking for England. or with vital measures on hold, such as the British Bill of Rights and the anti-obesity strategy, are we doomed to 17 weeks of being spoon-fed propaganda by Mr Cameron and nanny osborne?