By Rab Bruce’s Spider

The EU Referendum campaign is beginning to kick off and no doubt there will be many of us expressing opinions on the merits of staying in or leaving. From a tactical perspective, those of us who support Scottish independence may have to hold our noses over the stench of the debate and vote to stay in because, the ways things are looking, the rest of the uK may vote to leave and that would certainly be the material change of circumstance Nicola Sturgeon has mentioned.

As for the debate itself, my only prediction at the moment is that it is going to be truly awful. You only need to look at those involved to see why.

The fact that Nigel Farage will be a vociferous campaigner to leave the EU tells you that it will be more about fearmongering and rhetoric than proper argument. He will, of course, be supported by the Daily Mail which is another fine reason to vote to stay in.

Yet the Stronger In campaign hardly looks any better. They have already made an appeal to patriotism which is reminiscent of the very worst of Better Together and some of the politicians who have already declared they will support the campaign to remain in are familiar faces from the IndieRef. In particular, we can probably expect Gordon Brown to have uninterrupted media coverage of his speeches in which he will produce a timetable, make a Vow which he will personally guarantee will be upheld and then proceed to tell OAPs that their pensions will be at risk if Britain leaves the EU.

Given the calibre of the protagonists, this promises to be one of the worst referendum campaigns in history.