If you are opposed to the European Union, then you are racist and xenophobic. That's the unsubtle, finger-pointing message that has been jabbed out by the Remain camp over the past few weeks. There's a concerted effort to portray Brexit supporters as narrow-minded, parochial, unenlightened and rather uncouth. Who'd want to be associated with such an oafish constituency, with these people who refuse to accept having porous borders? 'Please don't leave us on this tiny Island with just the Tories', said one Remain placard – a mealy-mouthed way of saying that Britain is full of awful people.

This is the conceit of much of the Remain camp: that supporting the EU is a marker for tolerance, open-mindedness, decency and niceness. The divisions over the EU are often posed as a generational war, between cosmopolitan twentysomethings and older white proles, or a cultural war, between fresh-faced hipster creatives and the unattractive plebs. Are you on the side of open-minded 'us' or are you bunking up with backward 'them' – that has been the conformist cry of leading Remain backers. This is why even left-wingers who instinctively understand that the EU is an elitist, anti-democratic institution don't have the guts to come out for Brexit. Because to do so would mean associating yourself with modern-day untouchables: the riff-raff, the unsophisticated, the possibly racist.