The EU and Public Opinion: A Growing Rapprochement?

This chapter starts from the assumption that public opinion will almost certainly play a role in either impeding or facilitating progress along any road back to Europe, for at least four reasons. First, it seems almost inconceivable that significant steps along the road to renewed EU membership would fail to be accompanied by some greater or lesser degree of politicisation. Second, public opinion can generate public pressure and activism. Third, public opinion helps shape the political agenda by determining the issues that receive attention and discussion in the public sphere. Fourth, public opinion can affect political outcomes by virtue of its contribution to social and cultural change. Against this background, the chapter considers what the available survey and opinion poll evidence has to say about how Brexit-related perceptions and attitudes have changed in the UK since the 2016 referendum and what, if any, reasons for optimism they may have to suggest to those who would seek to reverse Brexit. The third and fourth sections explore the available qualitative research relevant to understanding the outlooks of those who favour Brexit.