My whole adult life has been a preparation for next week’s vote on leaving the European Union. It’s not just the biggest event in Britain; it’s the biggest event on the planet. But big doesn’t mean sudden or jarring. The effects will be cumulative and, at first, slight.

It was at the end of 1990 that I decided that getting out of the EU was the chief cause in British politics. Margaret Thatcher had just been deposed by a coalition of European leaders and pro-Brussels Conservative MPs. The Maastricht Treaty was being negotiated, turning the European Community into the European Union, and extending the jurisdiction of Brussels into foreign affairs, criminal justice, immigration, monetary policy and citizenship.