IT seemed rather perverse, in this of all weeks, not to mention the referendum.

So that is what the first draft of this column was all about: my thoughts, such as they were, on this great, crucial, future-shaping vote that takes place tomorrow.

Rather pleased with it I was, too, even if it was, in the final analysis, strikingly devoid of insight, originality or even a conclusion.

Then - Ping! An email arrives from the editor.

"URGENT," it begins. "Do NOT mention the referendum in your column tomorrow.

"Please keep to some other subject. We've got the referendum coming out of our ears. We've written about virtually nothing else this month. As even you cannot fail to have noticed."

I re-read his email several times, hoping to detect in his words some tiny trace of ambiguity that would make it, after all, permissible for me to write about the referendum - this great, crucial, future-shaping vote that takes place tomorrow.

I email the editor to ask if his word is irretrievably final.

Ping! "Exactly what part of 'Do NOT mention the referendum' is unclear to you?" he responds.

I reply, in what, for me, are unusually persistent terms.

"Of course, I take your point," I write - soothingly, diplomatically. "It's just that the entire world is talking about the referendum this week. It seems a bit weird to overlook it entirely. Can't I just mention it, even briefly? Even via the silkiest and most nuanced of allusions?"

I hit 'send'.

Ping! "I SERIOUSLY do not have time for this," the editor replies, with what in retrospect seems to be some heat. "I am focusing all of my efforts, and those of my team, on the referendum and simply do not have time to babysit my columnists.

"You have literally thousands of subjects to choose from. Go away. Read the papers. Go online. Do what you always do. Write about anything you like."

Another Ping! follows two seconds later, as soon as he realises his mistake. "APART FROM THE REFERENDUM!"

I take a deep breath, and send one last e-mail. "Understood," I write. "You're the boss. Nothing about the referendum. Agreed?"

Reply comes there none.

But at least this week's column has not mentioned the referendum. Not once. I hope the editor will feel proud of me.