In my never ending search for cultural inspiration I am this month ruminating upon Bucks Fizz. No, not the way to ruin a perfectly good glass of Champagne by sticking orange juice in it but the singing quartet of the same name.
And why do you remember them so fondly, Galbers? I hear you clamour. Was it for their skirt-ripping stage performance? No, although that does linger in the mind. The fact that they were the last British Eurovision winners (I will let you draw your own ironies)? No. It was the lyrics of the titular ballad that were intuitive, bordering on the prophetic.
Surely they foresaw that Remain would urge: “Don’t let your indecision, take you from behind. Trust your inner vision, don’t let others change your mind.”
Whilst Exit would implore us to: “Get a run for your money and take a chance. And it’ll turn out right.”
There is the promise that a vote to Remain will provide certainty-but maybe the certainty of death by bureaucracy imposed by unelected EU commissars in an ever-expanding super-state.
On the other hand there is a seductive quality to the Exit option, bordering on the intoxicating. But we know what we get after intoxication – a hangover.
The Book of Common Prayer states that ‘marriage… is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly’. One cannot help but suppose that divorce should be approached in the same way.
At our Chamber meeting last week just two business out of eighty indicated that they felt their businesses would be better off ‘Out’. That can hardly be taken as a scientific poll of how the UK will vote but is interesting in itself. I don’t see it being anywhere near as one sided but how will it pan out? As our Eurovision Troubadours sang: “Soon you will find that there comes a time. For making your mind up.”
Let’s just hope the band doesn’t turn out to be a spoonerism.
Clive.galbraith@greeninsurance.co.uk