How bad would a Brexit be for the UK economy? And will the fallout reach New Zealand? Liam Dann talks to Auckland University Professor Prasanna Gai and ASB senior economist Jane Turner about the risks.
The Brexit campaign is on a knife's edge, with Leave votes currently in the lead. Earlier today Nigel Farage conceded defeat, which he later took back, but then admitted they had lost the battle shortly afterward.
The final result is anyone's guess right now, but we take a look at the reasons why the Brexit mob may have lost it.
1. The Far-Right
The Brexit campaign was marred from the beginning due to the involvement of high-profile far-right bigots like UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage. This is a man who allegedly once said his party would "never win the n***** vote".
Farage has become a major advocate of the campaign by insisting it would curb immigration into Britain. He recently stood in front of a poster of a line of Syrian refugees with the words "Breaking Point: The EU has failed us."
The "us" in the poster didn't refer to displaced Syrians fleeing a war-zone - it referred to British people.
Farage, however, pales in comparison to other advocates who got behind the Leave campaign such as British National Party member Mark Collet - who thinks Jews might be to blame for their persecution over the past two millennia - and Eva van Housen who not only shares a name with Hitler's late wife, but has swastika tattoos to boot.
2. The murder of Jo Cox
The murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, who was campaigning for Remain, shocked Britain and forced parties on either side of the debate into recognising that the campaign had become poisonous.
The man accused of her murder, Thomas Mair, gave his name in court as "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain." His case is to be handled in "the terrorism case management list".
The former mayor of London and leading Brexit campaigner is one the UK most popular politicians and is known for playing fast and loose with facts. But many voters thought that even he had gone too far when he propagated a conspiracy theory that US President Barack Obama, who had come out for Remain, removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office due to his "part-Kenyan ancestral dislike of the British Empire".
While it's perfectly fine to dislike both Churchill and the British Empire, especially if your grandfather was imprisoned and tortured by the British, as Obama's was, it turned out to be wholly untrue.
4. John Oliver
While John Oliver's epic anti-Brexit rant won't air on British television until after the vote, it has gone viral on the internet already.
Oliver, in his show Last Week Tonight, debunked the majority of the Leave campaign's slogans while showing the financial risk of leaving the EU.
Summing up his rant, he said: "Immigration policy may not change, hysteria over regulation is a red herring, the cost of membership is reasonable, and the economic benefits of staying appear to outweigh the cost, and yet, polls suggest my homeland is on the verge of doing something absolutely insane."
5. The very real economic risks
The Bank of England issued a stark warning about the value of sterling dropping if a vote to leave succeeds.
There has already been a run on banks across the country as people stockpile Euros while the exchange rate remains strong, in fear that Brexit could suddenly devalue the Pound.
Prasanna Gai, Professor of Macroeconomics at the University of Auckland, said Brexit would cause a deep recession in Britain which would spill over to Europe and possible the entire world.
6. Sensible politicians campaigned to stay in
The Prime Minister and leader of the opposition don't often agree, but on this they're solid; Brexit is bad for Britain.
David Cameron capitulated to the referendum, but firmly argued Britain should stay within the EU while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has bemoaned the poisonous take-over of the Brexit campaign by Nigel Farage and co.
Pretty much all everyone else was concerned about Brexit. All of Europe has passionately campaigned for Britain to stay, even the controversial divisive philosophical and political troll Slavoj Zizek - but not without invoking Stalin.
"No it won't do, not enough Leninism", Zizek is probably saying here. Photo / Getty
Our own Prime Minister said he would prefer Britain stay in the EU - along with the leader of the free world, Obama.
8. Nationalism and history
The European Union arose out of the ruins of World War Two as a way for countries in the bloc to be united rather constantly battling each other.
Nationalism is a dirty word in Europe and a break from EU unity represents a shift in political isolationism which has caused a great deal of trouble for Europe in the past.
