"As for leaving the ERM vs ignoring a referendum, the two are completely different. If the government says stuff's bad so we're ignoring you, it won't last the week, before a vote of no confidence and general election."
Just saying that the two are completely different doesn't make it a fact. Remember Macmillan's famous comment about what the problems were for governments? "Events, dear boy, events." Or Harold Wilson's "Three weeks is a long time in politics."
My point is that governments are pushed and pulled by external factors. The referendum is basically a control struggle between two wings of the Conservative Party - the modernisers like Cameron and the people like Peter Bone, about whom the less said the better. You're basically reassuring us that everything is going to be all right no matter what; I'm saying we don't know. In the past, withdrawing from major treaties has usually been a prelude to shooting war; this is new territory.
As for immigration controls - half or more of our net immigration appears to be from non-EU countries. It is not hard to work out why politicians like Patel are in favour of an exit; they're counting on us needing those immigrants and having to go to India or Pakistan to find them*. The EU is nothing to do with non-EU immigration, so how leaving will change it I do not know.
" There's a clear majority of voters in polls who'd like to stay in a reformed EU."
Really? How do you know that since we don't even know what a "reformed EU" would look like?
"If Sterling drops by 10% overnight, we just ignore it. And it'll probably bounce back to a normal-ish level once the panic is over."
Yes, people like me with a fairly wide investment portfolio, long and short term (and presumably you) can "just ignore it." Well qualified people like my kids will be welcome abroad if their jobs go titsup in the UK. I too am pretty much all right, Jack, but a lot of people are not. People in Greece really suffered - and I agree it was because of a mix that included the EU, but the fact is that they did suffer as a result of bad policies ignorantly executed by self seeking politicians, most of them Greek.
*I have Indian relatives, there's nothing personal in this. In fact, I do get that the British Empire means our national identity is deeply interwoven with the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. I just detect considerable hypocrisy from all quarters on the subject of immigration.