Acceso usuarios
Niamh Nic Shuibhne
On Sunday November 18, the British Observer newspaper published the results of a commissioned survey, which established that 56 per cent of those polled would probably or definitely vote for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union if a referendum were to be held on that question.1 Additionally, just 28 per cent of likely voters considered that the European Union is a "good thing". But perhaps an even starker statistic is that very significant minorities of voters who support the ostensibly "pro Europe" political parties in Britain�Labour and the Liberal Democrats�would also choose withdrawal: 44 per cent and 39 per cent respectively. Moreover, the highest percentage of any sector of the electorate that supported remaining in the Union failed to reach 50 per cent (Liberal Democrats; 47 per cent). Is this indication of the thinking of British voters a problem just for Britain or is it a problem for the European Union as well? The results also raise an even more fundamental question: what is it that British voters actually want to leave?.
