Opinion polling in the UK, carried out by the leading commercial organisation, MORI, and its competitors, tends to give similar results over long time cycles. Some MORI data is examined below.

During the last few years, British political and public debate has focussed on the narrow (though crucial) question of whether the UK should join the EU's Single Currency, rather than on the broader question of the overall relationship with the EU. The results of polling on the Single Currency question can, to a certain extent, be regarded as a proxy for British attitudes to the European Union as a whole.

Attitudes to the Single Currency

MORI has asked the following question regularly:

If there were a referendum on whether Britain should be part of a Single European Currency, how would you vote?

In September 1999, 37 per cent were IN FAVOUR; 63 per cent AGAINST. Since 1991, the percentage AGAINST has never dropped below 60 per cent and has risen as high as 74 per cent. Even when a supplementary question was asked:

If the Government were to strongly urge that Britain should be part of a Single European Currency, how would you vote?

The AGAINST vote was still 20 per cent ahead of those IN FAVOUR.

Attitudes to the European Union

MORI has asked the following question twenty-five times since 1977:

If there were a referendum now on whether Britain should stay in or get out of the European Union, how would you vote?

In the most recent poll, in October 1999, the GET OUTS were in a majority: 51 per cent, compared with 49 per cent of STAY INS. The GET OUT vote has not dropped below 40 per cent for the last eight years.

In the same month, the British Government's own annual British Social Attitudes survey (with a much bigger sample than MORI's) showed that 50.3 per cent wanted Britain's policy on the EU to be "to leave or reduce its powers".

A separate MORI poll (where answers were unprompted) at the end of October 1999, found "Europe" (i.e. Britain's relationship with the EU) to be the single most important issue facing Britain today (22 per cent), ahead of Hospitals/National Health Service (14 per cent).

Attitudes to America

In September 1999, MORI conducted a poll on "British Identity" for The Economist. The first question was:

In a crisis, which of these - Europe, the Commonwealth or America - do you think would be Britain's most reliable political ally?

The responses were:

Americans	59%
Europeans	16%
Commonwealth	15%

The second question was:

A - …the way the economy works;

B - …the way democracy and government works?

The responses were:

	A	B
Americans	34%	36%
Germany	36%	23%
France	5%	6%

Another question was:

And which of these flags, if any, do you identify with?

The responses were:

UK (the Union Jack)	83%
US (Stars and Stripes	23%
EU (Twelve Stars)	21%

(Six flags were shown - responses for the national flags of the constituent nations of the UK, England, Scotland and Wales, excluded).

It seems fair to conclude from the above that a strategy consisting of Britain leaving the EU and linking up with NAFTA would find wide support amongst the British public; so would just leaving the EU.