IMMIGRATION WORRIES
* English cricket legend Ian Botham advised people to leave the bloc, sounding the alarm on immigration
* Our beautiful countryside is not designed for 100 million people, he wrote in The Express
* One study released Tuesday showed the "Remain" side with a six-point lead on 53 percent
* Nevertheless, the researchers NatCen emphasised that a 50-50 result was still within their survey's margin of error
* Opinion polls consistently show just over 10 percent of Britons have not made up their minds
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ECB says difficult
to predict outcome
FRANKFURT (GERMANY): European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said Tuesday the ECB is prepared for all eventualities regarding the British EU referendum later this week, but the economic impact of the vote is difficult to predict.
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Financier George Soros warned of a Black Friday plunge in sterling if Britain votes to quit the EU as new polls showed a razor-tight race less than 48 hours ahead of the referendum.
The man who made a fortune by betting against the pound in the so-called Black Wednesday of September 1992 said that a rejection of the European Union would deliver a major financial shock.
Britain, the world's fifth-biggest economy, would be the first state to leave the EU since the bloc's founding 60 years ago if the "Leave" camp wins in Thursday's vote.
The prospect of a Brexit has raised fears of a worst-case domino-effect collapse of the European project, born out of a determination to ensure peace on the continent after two world wars.
"Sterling is almost certain to fall steeply and quickly if 'Leave' wins the referendum," Soros wrote Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper.
"I would expect this devaluation to be bigger and also more disruptive than the 15 percent devaluation that occurred in 1992," the Hungarian-born US billionaire predicted.
"A vote to leave could see the week end with a Black Friday, and serious consequences for ordinary people."
Pro-Brexit campaigners dismissed Soros' remarks.
"He backed the creation of the euro -- thought that was a good idea -- and actually as we have seen the euro has been a job-destroying, unemployment-creating disaster," said the justice minister, Michael Gove.
World financial markets, which rallied the previous day following opinion poll gains by the "Remain" camp, traded cautiously higher Tuesday as new surveys showed the race is tight.
In polls released overnight, two placed the "Remain" side narrowly ahead while a third indicated the "Leave" camp could prevail.
The websites of six major bookmakers showed the odds heavily pointing to a "Remain" vote, with the chances of Britain staying in put at nearly 80 percent.
The nationalist party's previous billboard -- showing a line of migrants walking across Europe with the words "Breaking Point" -- unleashed accusations of hate-stirring.
Johnson, the leading voice in the Brexit camp, told a radio interviewer: "I felt profoundly unhappy with it."
British sports legends joined the fray, too.
"We live in a vibrant and connected world where together as a people we are strong," England football great David Beckham wrote on Facebook. "For these reasons I am voting to Remain."
In Spain, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Britain should never had conducted the vote.
"Staging a referendum is a mistake, we have opened a Pandora's box," he told a business forum late Monday. "I am convinced Brexit will not happen, I am convinced that the British will be rational."
