FOR those of us who survived Scotland’s referendum on independence back in 2014, there has been an odd sense of deja vu these past few months.

For a bit there, the European Union referendum felt like a sort of Poundland version of the indyref.

Like a Poundland Toblerone, it’s been occasionally great value, but it’s not quite the same size or as much fun as a regular Toblerone. It lacked mountains.

But in the last couple of weeks this vote on the UK’s membership of the EU has really come into its own, and in many ways, it has even surpassed the indyref. Obviously not in terms of debate or civic engagement – more in terms of “what on Earth just happened?”

Here are just a few of our favourite moments.

Bob Geldof and Nigel Farage recreate the Battle of Waterloo on the River Thames

Self-proclaimed fishermen’s friend Nigel Farage lead a flotilla of fishing boats up the Thames to protest against the Common Fisheries Policy.

In an attempt to stymie the MEP, Boomtown Rat and activist Bob Geldof organised an opposing battalion of boats.

“Nigel, you’re a fraud” Geldof shouted through a very loud loudhailer before detailing the Ukip leader’s poor attendance record at the fishing committee he is supposedly a member of.

Farage called Geldof disgusting and accused the Don’t Like Mondays singer of laughing at hard-working people. At one point one fisherman did actually board Geldof’s boat.

At a press conference later, the Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett asked Farage when he would be fighting Midge Ure in a spitfire.

Some Remain voters organise a ceilidh outside the Scottish Parliament and a Tory MSP is utterly furious

Hundreds took the floor outside the Scottish Parliament for a gigantic Strip the Willow in favour of the UK remaining in Europe.

Organised by the band Lau, who said they just wanted to do something positive, the hoofers and musicians who took part in the epic 20-minute barn-dance were all clearly having the time of their lives. The only person not having fun was miserable Eurosceptic Conservative MSP Ross Thomson, who accused the dancers of “prancing about”.

Like the Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose, the dance-hating Brexiteer said it showed the whole Remain campaign were being “complacent”. “Remain are prancing about outside an empty Scottish Parliament as if they’ve already won the referendum,” the joyless, fun-despising MSP huffed.

David Coburn

The Ukip leader in Scotland hasn’t been quite as big a deal in this campaign as he would have hoped.

Very early on, the Electoral Commission said the official leave campaign would be run by Vote Leave rather than Leave.EU, which included the Ukip-supported Grassroots Out.

All those lovely media appearances the MEP was hoping would come his way instead went to former Labour MP and Vote Leave director Tom Harris, a man regarded as far more sensible than Coburn.

We never really had vintage Coburn in this election. As always, the highlight came when the rest of the world, and not just viewers in Scotland, got to see the Europe-hating politician in full flow.

“BBC knew the questions in advance and chose which audience members speak and Cameron still lost despite Auntie’s best efforts” the gaffe-prone Kipper tweeted after watching a televised debate with the Prime Minister. Sure, he’s not the first politician to complain about BBC bias.

The only problem is that the Brexiteer’s buffoon-in-residence was watching a debate on ITV. People were laughing about this for days. Before social media we probably wouldn’t know which of our politicians were buffoons. There would likely be fewer lawsuits as well.

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp: UK is a nation that’s out of date and out of time

European press near-unanimous in pleading for the UK to vote Remain

Scotland has spoken - what now? High turnout as Britain decides its future with Europe

Patrick Harvie: Whatever the result today, there's a desperate need for a new politics

Letters II: The Remainers have been patronising, simplistic and evasive

Project Fear

We know Project Fear, okay? We’ve had Project Fear. Remember when then defence secretary Philip Hammond said an independent Scotland wouldn’t be able to protect itself against an alien invasion? No, really, he did say that. There’s no way anything in this referendum could top that...

“As a historian, I fear that Brexit could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also of Western political civilisation in its entirety,” warned President of the European Council Donald Tusk.

Those voting Leave, be aware: if it all goes belly-up and we have to live in the woods and eat our dogs, it’s your fault and you have been warned.

Also, just recently, Foreign Policy magazine warned that a British departure from the EU would see Game of Thrones put at risk. The massively popular HBO fantasy series would be deprived of a significant amount of funding that they get for shooting on location. Want to know what happens to Arya Stark? A girl has no series seven without a vote to Remain.


Sleb endorsements

It’s always one of the big questions any voter must ask before coming to a decision – what way is Bryan Adams, singer of record-breaking 1991 hit (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, going to vote?

Well, he came out for Brexit. As did John Cleese – a man now well known for leaving unions and having to pay huge sums of money as a consequence. He was joined by Dame Joan Collins, Duncan Bannatyne, Ian Botham and Keith Chegwin. The Remain side kind of won this one. They had Daniel Craig, Daisy Ridley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Patrick Stewart, Jeremy Clarkson and James May and loads, loads, more.

They also had David Beckham. Though, as soon as he announced, the Leave side pointed to an interview his wife Posh Spice gave the Spectator in 1996 where she talked about loving the pound and not wanting the Euro. “Should have listened to the missus,” they fumed.

Very quickly, Victoria Beckham told the Leave campaign to get stuffed. She would be voting to remain. Weirdly, when Michael Gove was told, live on air, that Beckham was backing Remain, he told John Humphrys, “Well, we’ve got John Barnes”. Barnes found the nearest Sky News reporter he could and told Gove he bloody well wasn’t on the same side as him. He too is backing Remain...


Tim Farron

...which led to Tim Farron recording a video of him doing the John Barnes rap from 1990 England Football song World in Motion.


So much more and so little space...

We barely have time to mention Boris Johnson claiming that Europe was stopping us buying more than three bananas at any one time.

A statement from a man who has clearly never bought his own bananas. This led to a Remain campaigner dressing up as a banana, accompanied by another dressed as gorilla, protesting at a Johnson event. Which in turn led to an irate Leave campaigner punching the monkey man in the face. Which may or may not be the plot of the next Planet of the Apes prequel.

Nigel Farage and that poster, where in the space of three days the Ukip leader segued from Alan Partridge-style-flotilla leader to standing in front of a poster that literally looked like Nazi propaganda. Not so funny. Just grim.

Then there was Vote Leave’s infamous battle bus. It spent months touring all over the country (not Scotland though) emblazoned with a lie. We send the EU £350m a week, it said. They kept that line there, even when it had been discredited by everyone. According to gossip site Popbitch, the bus was taken out of service yesterday, to become Will Young’s Glastonbury bus. What was his biggest hit? Leave Right Now.

Then there was Bpop-Live, the most disaster-prone concert the country has ever seen. Punters were promised Sister Sledge, two members of 90s boyband Five and East 17, among others. But just about every act booked for the big Brexit gig pulled out, claiming they hadn’t been told it was a political event. In the end, organisers of the event at the 15,000-seater Genting Arena in Birmingham knocked the price down from £25 to £5 to see remaining acts – the band formerly known as Bucks Fizz and a leading Elvis Tribute act. In the end, they cancelled, blaming bureaucrats.

And finally, in at the last minute, the BBC, in a bid to tell voters about the regional counts in the referendum, managed to somehow confuse Falkirk with Inverness on their map. Apparently, the monster is now terrified that Ineos might turn up and start fracking the loch.