UK support for EU membership hits new high

[Chippiewill]

Britons would vote to remain in the EU by a 10 point margin, according to new polling published on Wednesday (25 February).
Forty-five percent of Britons would back continued membership of the bloc, while 35 percent would vote to leave, according to pollsters YouGov. The lead for the ’IN’ campaign is the largest since YouGov began monthly polls on the question of EU membership in September 2010.

The growing support for EU membership, which is up from 42 percent last month, marks a big shift since the depths of the eurozone crisis in 2011 and 2012 when a majority of Britons favoured leaving the EU.

At its lowest, a mere 28 percent favoured continued membership in May 2012, when the ‘OUT’ campaign led by 23 points.

In its analysis of the data, YouGov notes that rising support for the UK’s EU membership has been mirrored by a steady increase in economic confidence in both the UK and eurozone economies.

“Just as many of the bumps in public opinion regarding the EU have coincided with critical moments in the Eurozone crisis and the Great Recession, support for the Union has risen more or less in tandem with rising economic confidence,” said YouGov in a statement accompanying the poll.

“One possible explanation for the movement towards ‘IN’ is that voters have become less interested in disrupting the status quo as they have increasingly felt its rewards,” YouGov added.

YouGov also points to a slight decline in support for the UK Independence party, the only UK party which campaigns for an exit from the EU.

https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/127793

UKIP is dead. The EU shall prevail.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Hardly news, the polls have been swinging backwards and forwards on this for over a year or two now. It was only last week that Opinium Polling had...

Supporting EU withdrawal: 44%
Support for remaining in the EU: 41%
Unsure: 14%

The issue isn't going to go away, the legal set up of the EU means more and more powers will keep going to Brussels and thus in time it'll only become a bigger and bigger issue. That's not to mention the fact that it looks like David Cameron isn't going to get any meaningful concessions from the Commission and his failure to do so will likely have the media and press then advocate withdrawal in any referendum. And then there's the question of what happens to the Eurozone in the next decade whether it falls apart or whether political union comes about... which would mean the EU as currently constituted would cease to exist and Britain being a non-federalist and non-Euro country would be forced to the exit door alongside Norway and Switzerland.

I have long thought it is more likely we'll be pushed out de facto by closer integration rather than by a referendum which can easily be manipulated.

UKIP is dead.

As was said in 1999. 2004. Then 2005. Then 2009. Then 2010. Then 2014.

And the campaign for parliamentary democracy & British sovereignty will go on regardless of whether Ukip implodes tomorrow or wins a dozen seats in May.