SO today’s the day.

The people of Thurrock and our good nation are entrusted with, well, a pretty big decision actually.

The EU. Do we stay or do we go?

The whole build up’s been annoying. Blatant political point scoring from the off. The inevitable Boris bid for the future leadership of the Conservative party followed by constant, low level political back biting and grandiose claims from all angles.

Experts predicting everything from the future money markets and house prices to the price of bread and milk.

History shows we don’t learn lessons and history also shows “experts” rarely get it right. So if you haven’t got a crystal ball, well, you’ve had it really.

It’s billed as in or out of Europe. The fact is we’ll always be part of Europe. It’s the EU we’re voting on. And people have serious concerns that far too much of our cash is going the wrong way.

Many people would like to leave, I think, and renegotiate our position in the aftermath.

But it’s back to the crystal ball scenario. Who knows what will happen? How the rest of Europe will react to us.

Leaving will inevitably put other key European players noses out of joint. We mustn’t forget it was only a few years ago there was a World War.

For me, it’s a little bit damned if you do damned if you don’t. Stay in and have some sort of say at Europe’s bloated top table versus the unknown of coming out and re-evaluating, maybe leaving us in a stronger position. Maybe not.

It’s all been claims, counter claims and scare-mongering from both sides. And a real mission to uncover any cast-iron facts or guarantees.

I suppose at least if your crystal ball works you’ll know what to expect.