New polling undermines claim that Brexit was a vote against globalisation
Britain’s vote to leave the EU was driven by disaffected communities that have been left behind by globalisation.
This interpretation of the result — as a ‘quiet revolution’ against globalisation — has become political gospel in recent months and is at the heart of the government’s policy agenda.
But new polling data from, published today by the think tank Demos, throws this assumption into question.
It finds that across Europe, a clear majority recognise the benefits of globalisation in their countries and for the region as a whole.
In Britain, 59 per cent of people believe that globalisation has had a positive effect on the UK, 52 per cent believe it has benefited their local area, and 58 per cent believe it has been good for Europe.
Across the six countries surveyed (GB, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Spain and France), 63 per cent believed globalisation was good for Europe and 58 per cent believed it was good for their country.
France was the only country where a majority of respondents (50 per cent) felt that globalisation had had a negative impact on their country.
These findings call into question the idea that across the continent political populism is being fuelled by resentment of globalisation, and the Brexit vote was a protest against globalisation.
However, the figures also confirm that Europeans are deeply Eurosceptic and pessimistic about the Union’s prospects.
Britain, unsurprisingly, leads the charge in this respect. 45 per cent favoured leaving the EU as a long-term strategy, almost twice that of any other country.
However, in all six states, a significant segment supported either leaving the EU or reducing its powers (57 per cent in Sweden, 55 per cent in France, 41 per cent in Spain, 40 per cent in Poland, 39 per cent in Germany).
Forty per cent of all those surveyed are pessimistic about the EU’s prospects over the next year, while just 19 per cent are optimistic.
The research forms part of a larger Demos project, investigating the causes and manifestations of populist and fear-based politics in Europe.
While these figures demonstrate that Europe is gloomy, divided and broadly dissatisfied with the EU, they also suggest that politicians and policy-makers — in Britain as elsewhere — have not correctly identified the causes for popular disaffectation.
See also: Hard Brexiteers have a curious idea about political mandates
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2 Responses to “The majority of Europeans welcome globalisation – so why do they resent the EU?”
Clive Malcolm
Seriously, once again you publish a poll which you think claims what people think about globalisation. People in London would agree with your poll, but have you asked the people of the Midlands and North of the country the same thing? I’d bet you’ll get a different answer. People are bored with polls because they are not accurate and are used as a political tool. Hence why brexit happened. People nowdays have a bit more between the ears, and are not swayed by campaines that tell them otherwise.
Mick
Ooooo, Left! The answer to the greatest conundrum ever is, amazingly, that people don’t want to weighed down by a dead hand of supranational frauds and PC clowns!
The Eurozone has only ever been fairly OK at best. It was supposed to thrash the Pound but it never. Eurocrats swamp the continent with rapefugees, trade bans and red tape, which stifles more than it liberates.
And we have to pay for all that! And fight like lions just for rebates.