At one time or another, though, virtually every media outlet has had a punt. We've had the Guardian in May, just after the election, the Telegraph joining in the fun in June and the Independent playing games in July. This was followed by speculation in The Times that George Osborne wanted to wrap things up early. Then, most recently, the Sunday Telegraph decided to warn us of a "snap referendum".

Currently, though, the legacy media seem less than enthusiastic about picking up a Reuters report, conveyed by Yahoo News, telling us that Foreign Minister Phillip Hammond sees the referendum schedule "tight for Britain to vote on EU next year".

This is echoed by Bloomberg, telling us that the UK expects to begin "serious" talks on its role in the European Union in December, and if those discussions take more than six months, then a referendum "may not happen until 2017".

This was from Hammond, who warned that EU Member States nations would not even begin to consider the "British question" until after October's elections in Poland. That means that the European Council meeting at the end of the year will be the first chance for in-depth discussions.

Says Hammond, if the UK can settle on a deal with the rest of the Member States by May or June, then the referendum "could still take place next year". If talks drag on "through the summer", he adds, then the vote probably would be pushed to the year after.

The Foreign Secretary also says that treaty change will "probably" be needed, but Britain would not push for that to take place immediately "if it can get a binding commitment to enact the changes later on".

This now all begins to stack up, adding to the growing volume of evidence supporting our assessment that Mr Cameron will hold off until he has a treaty change to offer, which will not be announced by the "colleagues" until the second half of 2017.

Elsewhere, other analysts are reading the same runes, whereas the BBC can only offer the weak observation that Mr Hammond "played down talk of a quick renegotiation deal" and the Mail grudgingly manages to acknowledge that the late start of negotiations are ""limiting the chances of an EU referendum in early 2016".

No doubt the legacy media are loathe to give up their games, but it is looking increasingly as if we are in for the long haul. That has Farage and other campaigners launching prematurely, with a real risk that some lose momentum as activists see no immediate end in sight.

That already seems to be problem for Ukip which is reported to be having difficulty filling conference seats. Other campaign groups might also have difficulty motivating activists, as the timescale extends. Nevertheless, the idea of associate membership is breaking cover, allowing a chance that, when the campaign really takes off, we might be better prepared.

In this case, delay might be to the advantage of the "leave" campaign, although only if the time is used wisely, in order to maximise the eventual effect.