Latest polling confirms that people want out of the EU

The Angus Reid polling organisation have today released their latest EU relate polls. And yet again we can see the massive disconnect between the political elite and the people they purport to represent. Indeed yet again we see that on this, as on so much the settled opinion of Britons chimes most closely with UKIP.

53% say EU membership has been negative for the UK; 33% believe it has been positive
46% would vote to leave the EU in a referendum; 26% would vote to stay in
83% would vote against the UK adopting the euro

The final questions relate to Cameron's ghost veto, which as we know was popular,

61% agree with the Government’s decision to reject the new EU treaty

But of course Angus Reid are merely compounding the myth that there was a Treaty on the Table for Cameron to Veto.
Finally and quite the siren sound for Dave comes the 56% who would like to see the Coalition split and for their to be a snap General Election.

UKIP's poll rise is real, significant and sustainable

As this graph from Anthony Wells of YouGov shows since the general election the steady growth of UKIP is one of the most intersting developements in British politics.

This is of course in part because of the growth of the European Union in people's conciousness, but as Wells points out has many other causes.


The bottom line is that this isn't some flash in the pan, but somethng that isn't going away.

Lies, damn lies and Eurobarometer Surveys

Eurobarometer (about which more later) has just released a survey into driving in the EU, the results of which have been taken up by this headline in Euractive,

Europeans happy to pay more taxes for more driving

Yeah, of course they are.

In preparation for a White Paper on transport published yesterday (28 March), the Commission's directorate-general for transport commissioned a Eurobarometer study to assess the popularity of one of the EU executive's proposals, referred to as "pay as you drive" taxation.

The idea is to internalise all costs of driving, such as congestion, noise pollution and accidents, and to make people pay for the services they actually use.

In this, the proposal resembles the Eurovignette scheme, which affects heavy trucks and is currently being used on roads in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The new tax system would replace the current 'flat rate' of registration and road tax, which do not take into account at what time or how often a driver uses a vehicle, nor the noise and pollution levels of the vehicle.

50% of the respondents supported the new scheme; 16% were strongly in favour. 31% were opposed to such a system, of whom 13% were strongly against the scheme. A little under 20% of respondents were undecided.

Does this mean that EU citizens (natch) actually suport higher taxes? Lets look at the question.

To what extent do you agree with replacing existing car charges such as registration and circulation taxes with charging schemes that take into account the actual use of the car such as the kilometers driven, or the use of it in peak hours?

Nope. No mention of higher taxes. Yes people thought that there may be different ways of working out how a tax should be raised, but absolutely no mention of higher taxes here.

They lie. Or at least Euractive lie.

Whole lotta UKIP

You have to hand it to Lord Monckton in his letter in today's Telegraph.

SIR – UKIP hates neither Islam nor foreigners nor Europe (report, March 5).

As the only party that trusts the voters of Britain to call referendums on any matter on which our remote governing elite fails to represent their wishes, with the results binding Parliament, we are the party not of hatred or of xenophobia, but of love. That is why the young and idealistic are joining UKIP.

Viscount Monckton of Brenchley

Joint Deputy Leader, UKIP
Rannoch, Perthshire

Meanwhile Simon Heffer in the same paper today gets it spot on. UKIP while once a single issue party now has clear, defined, and different policies to the mainstream jaded and doppleganger parties that are the coalition and Labour,

In case you missed it, the Tories came third in Barnsley. They were beaten by the United Kingdom Independence Party, whose share of the vote rose dramatically compared with last year's general election. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Ukip's raison d'être is opposition to our membership of the European Union. However, it is also a party that believes in a small state, tax cuts, welfare reform, strong defence, grammar schools and strict non-racial controls on immigration.

Of course what Heffer doesn't point out is that UKIP's support is now coming from across the board (as, indeed it always did). A look at the post Barnsley polling in that constituency makes it claer that the 12% picked up by UKIP in that by-election did not come from disaffected Tories,

This survey merely repeats what we have been seeing on a national scale. YouGov reports that UKIP pick up equaly from Lib Dems and Tories. As does Angus Reid/Vision Critical. The latest poll from Populus in the Times (data not yet available, and what there is is behind the Times paywall) puts us on 5%,

Labour has edged slightly further ahead in the latest Populus poll for The Times, amid evidence that public enthusiasm for the Tories and Lib Dems working together is fading.


Labour’s support is now on 41 per cent, up 2 points on the Populus poll from last month, while the Tories are down one, on 35 per cent.

The Lib Dems remain unchanged on 11 per cent.

Of the remaining parties, UKIP secured 5 per cent support and the Greens 4 per cent.

which for Populus is a massive increase on their normal polling for UKIP where we were lucky to hit 2%.
 
Things are moving.