Columnist Leo McKinstry on why the Brexiteers are gaining ground

Gerard Lyons: "The European Union is like the Titanic. Imagine being in Southampton harbour the day the Titanic set sail. Its size gave the impression of invincibility: safe and secure. It wasn’t. Despite receiving warnings of impending danger it didn’t change course, hit trouble and sank.Because it is huge, some in the UK feel we would be safer and economically stronger in the EU. This is wrong. We now have the opportunity to jump ship to safety. An opportunity we are never likely to have again. Not a leap into the dark, but for those able to look ahead, a move to safety." (Image by Wikipedia)

Leo McKinstry on why the Brexiteers are gaining ground:

The political experts have misjudged every aspect of the referendum fight. Their clichéd thinking led them to believe that the Brexit campaign would be backward-looking and reactionary, whereas the Remain effort would be optimistic and positive. But the reverse is true. 
The Leavers have been upbeat, emphasising the need for Britain to embrace freedom and take her place on the global stage by throwing off the shackles of EU bureaucracy. In contrast, the Remain campaign has been relentlessly gloomy, insular and defeatist. Its profoundly unpatriotic central theme is that Britain is too enfeebled to survive on its own without EU rule or a flood of EU migrants. 
The Remain campaigners can never be positive about the EU because the organisation is a basket case, as dysfunctional as it is undemocratic. Confronted by the evidence of the EU’s comprehensive failure, the Remainers bleat about the need for reform. But, as David Cameron’s humiliating recent deal proved, the EU is not remotely interested in reform, only in the creation of the federal superstate at the expense of traditional nationhood. 
Despite all the scaremongering propaganda, it is clear that truth is beginning to penetrate the electorate. There is now real hope that we could grab the chance to govern ourselves again.