Fraser Nelson, writing on the Coffee House, has unearthed some interesting graphs from Eurobarometer which show the proportion who think that their country's membership of the EU is a good thing; the proportion who think their country has benefited from EU membership; the proportion who tend to trust the EU; the net positive image of the EU; and the proportion who think the EU is best placed to regulate financial markets.
As Nelson explains, these polls are the largest in the world, being conducted simulataneously in all Member States by the EU Commission. I can but echo Nelson when he writes:
"I've always found it strange that Euroscepticism is caricatured as a fringe, minority position when the polling evidence is so overwhelming.......What most jumps out at me is that only 29 per cent of us think EU membership is "a good thing " — and yet 100 per cent of Westminster parties regard it as a good thing. Whatever you may think about Europe, there is a measurable gulf here between the views of the people and the MPs."
It is often said that we could elect a load of monkeys or robots to represent our views under the current system of democracy - oh, hang-on...............................
8 comments:
All the polls in the world are not going to alter their determination to ignore us - their very safety depends on it.
It's interesting, if you watch the BBC, eurosceptics are always presented as a very small and nutty minority.
What most jumps out at me is that only 29 per cent of us think EU membership is "a good thing" — and yet 100 per cent of Westminster parties regard it as a good thing
That cannot carry on forever without consequences.
My very worry is the public really don't care/are actively anti-democratic and therefore will vote however they are told.
Add to the fact that many people here really don't care about the EU and you have a largely soft eurosceptic public that can be forced to vote for continued EU membership in very short order.
People would probably vote for outright dictatorship under a similarly long browbeating scheme. Or their own deaths - I am not kidding, there are millions of people who are that gullible.
I think you underestimate the supreme lack of critical thinking by most of the public. If the 'yes' side lies and deceives enough, it's all over.
I'm not sure it can't go on forever. To coin an old phrase: "Bread and circuses".
JH: Agreed.
MF: And what more would we expect from the BBC?
TBF: Logic would so dictate, but I fear logic is not to be allowed to shine through.....
k: Agree (see above response to TBF)
I also suspect it depends on many things. The relationship between MPs and the EU as perceived by the public, how bullying the EU gets, how much the people start thinking about what they want, how much the bullying is effective, and so on.
Given that the scource of those graphs is the EU Commission itself it would be surprising if the poll was not slanted in its favour so the actual results might be even more interesting.
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