ST Augustine's The City of God presents human history as a conflict between the city of Man and the city of God.

In his City of Man the dangers of earthly pleasures are unveiled and there is veiled anticipation of 20th century 'entertainment' questions like who wants to be a millionaire?

And now, thanks to the Tory victory in the General Election, there is, apparently, an 'entertaining' 21st century question on its way, which is 'should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?'

The question is 'entertaining' because the SNP has proved the United Kingdom to be hardly, in its original sense, 'united' and because the European Union, whose aims are political union, a common currency and common tax, fiscal, defence and foreign policies, is concealing its real objective.

The honest (as opposed to illusory) question to ask is therefore 'should the 'United' Kingdom be a member of a Single European State?'

By the same token 1975's 'honest' EU referendum question would have been 'do you think the United Kingdom should be a member of an European Union?' and not the illusory question we were asked which was 'do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (The Common Market)?' which, with Westminster's support for a 'yes', delivered 67.5 per cent in favour of staying in.

The 'sense of obligation' often associated with the word 'should' was used in 1975 and is being used again now.

According to cognitive therapists 'should' questions or statements are known as 'categorical imperatives' which can suggest negative thinking and contribute to feelings of fear and worry which begs the question, how much of the 'yes' campaign's tactics in the upcoming EU referendum will be based on 'fear of the unknown' outside the EU?

After voting 'no' in the EU referendum we shall build our EU exit strategy on the foundations of Clause 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Then, by re-joining the European Free Trade Area, securing access to the European Economic Area and Single Market membership we will shed the burden of Brussels' undemocratic, bureaucratic and corrupt tower of Babel and pave the way to regaining Britain's independence.

Forget barely surviving outside the 'big bad EU', we will prove this fear illusory.

The truth is we can not only survive we can thrive once again as a self-governing country. We might even make the Palace of Westminster a Parliament to be proud of.

So if Mark Harper thinks (as he claims in his column) that he sees in the Queen's Speech ('from a one nation government') 'a clear vision for what our country can be' he needs a new prescription for his reading glasses.

While David Cameron dances his seven veils round Europe, our challenge in this EU referendum 'phoney war' is to conquer fear and apathy at home.

By developing the 'no' case, planning the campaign and executing the plan we shall win the referendum and return political authority to each of us, where it belongs.

This will be a celebration, not of Little Europe, but of Global Britain.

Resurrecting an independent Britain is merely a step in the right direction.

– John Muir, Newnham.