Whatever the EU result, we could see the biggest earthquake ever in UK politics over the next few months

But it is back now at full blast with the two rival camps hammering each other without mercy.

It is only a matter of hours now before we shall know the result of the most important vote the British electorate have probably ever had to take.

The Prime Minister has insisted he will not be driven out of office, even if Brexit win. But I wonder about that.

How can he possibly engage in withdrawal negotiations when he is so firmly committed to staying in the EU? Conversely, if Remain win, what does the political future hold for Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Boris Johnson? Pretty bleak I should imagine.

I suspect we are going to see the biggest earthquake ever in the British political landscape over the next few months, whatever the outcome.

• Some leading political figures have taken the opportunity - if that is the right word - to say that, contrary to widespread public perceptions, politicians are not all rogues. Indeed, they say, the vast majority of them, like Jo Cox, are in it to make the world a better place.

That may well be true in many cases, but the fact remains that the general odium that has descended on MPs has been brought upon themselves. They have only themselves to blame for the negative view in which the general public by and large, hold them.

Let us not forget the expenses scandal of a few years ago. Many MPs - I would put the number in three figures - abused public money in a manner as if they had won millions on the lottery, charging the poor British taxpayer for fripperies which he would not even dream of having.

There were the applications for the infamous duck house (Sir Peter Viggers), the cleaning of his moat (Douglas Hogg) and the bulk-buying of lavatory seats (Sir Peter Luff) to quote just a tiny fraction of some of the ludicrous applications made and, in many cases, granted. A Fleet Street news editor who received expenses like that from his reporters would have had an apoplectic fit on the spot.

The death of Mrs Cox, apparently an exemplary MP, cannot and should not erase all that. But if it has served to improve the public perception of MPs, then it will be the only good thing to have emerged from this terrible tragedy.

• The Tory peer Lord Tebbit said recently that on the one occasion he met the notorious Jimmy Savile, he found him “creepy”.

I would apply precisely the same epithet to describe, with or without hindsight, the late Liberal MP, Clement Freud, who has also been unmasked as a child abuser.

He was a droll fish who seemed to regard himself as a cut above the rest of us. He was obviously desperate to get that knighthood, ringing me up, when I was compiling the list, to enquire whether he was on it. I told him that because the information was confidential until the official publication time, I could not tell him. He was raging. He had to wait another year for it!

Meanwhile, I trust the Home Secretary Theresa May will act, with legislation if necessary, to prevent a repetition of the Cliff Richard affair. The veteran singer was, to use his own words, held out like live bait for months on end while the police investigated allegations of sexual abuse on his part. They decided that no charges would be brought against him.

Mrs May should now ensure that people in this position in future should not have their names published until or if they are charged.

• Jo Cox is the first British female MP to have been killed. But others have met a similar fate elsewhere in the world. Indira Gandhi, the former Indian leader, was killed by one of her own bodyguards. Mrs Cox was the soul of courtesy and kindness to all those she dealt with, including journalists.