Despite EU flaws, continued membership is best choice for Britain

The British electorate decides on Thursday, in perhaps the most important decision facing the country since 1945, whether to leave the European Union (EU) after some four decades of membership. In a campaign high on hyperbole, the "Leave" leaders have failed - remarkably - to address the single most important question it needs to answer.

That is, the alternative that it wishes Britain to adopt instead of membership of the EU. The fact that it hasn't been able to articulate this with clarity sells the electorate short in such an important moment in the nation's history.

To be sure, former London mayor Boris Johnson had seemed to advocate in March for the United Kingdom (UK) to have the type of bilateral deal that Canada may be on the cusp of concluding with the EU after around seven years of negotiations. Yet, he has since appeared to row back from this after not appearing to know that the agreement, still to be finally concluded, has taken some seven years to negotiate, nor that it does not cover services which represents around 80 per cent of the UK economy.