Gun Culture

Thursday, August 04, 2005

50% would vote to leave the EU

UKIP are attempting to make some hay from the survey commisioned with YouGov which suggests that 50% of respondents would vote to leave the EU if given the opportunity.
In the press release Nigel Farage says

“These results are better than we could ever have dreamed. It now shows that there is a clear majority which wants free trade with the EU rather than membership.”

As an activist in UKIP I have been asked to circulate this news in the local media etc.  To be honest I’m a little reluctant.  In the unlikely event that any such referendum was called it is highly improbable that the question would be

Q2 If a referendum were held and these were the available options, which would you choose?
Britain remaining a member of the European Union
or
Britain leaving the European Union and replacing our membership with a free trade agreement

The question (and certainly the propaganda running up to any referendum) would be more in terms of would you like to turn your back on our European trading partners and risk 30 million jobs?
It is encouraging that over 60% polled would like to see a referendum, but of course all any politician has to say is that the British people had a chance to vote to withdraw in the last general election by voting for UKIP and it failed to do so massively.
I think there is still a huge PR job to be done before we can start talking about referendi, far too many Joe Average’s are EUsceptic but know too little about the true nature of the EU project to be determined enough to resist the huge propaganda machine of national and supranational government.  UKIP are naive if they think that we are anywhere close to the tipping point on the EU issue.