Sunday, April 05, 2009

Poll Result: Europe v USA

Yesterday I asked you to make a choice. If Britain, for whatever reason, had to join the USA or a United States of Europe, which would you plump for. More than 1,000 of you voted. Here is the result...

USA 81%
Europe 19%

Bear in mind that only 55% or 60% of my readers are Conservatives and you will see what a remarkable result this is.

23 comments:

Bonetired said...

This is a modern version of Churchill's comment to de Gaulle: "Each time we must choose between Europe and the open sea, we shall always choose the open sea"

By which he meant the United States and the rest of the English speaking world ...

It Will Come to Me said...

I wonder if DC will spot this open electoral goal? I'm not holding my breath.

Plato said...

What is really true that Obama's aides compared each country attending the G99435 with an American state?

It sounded too absurb to be true but I have now suspended reality after the events of the last two weeks.

Tom said...

If only you'd included a voting intention question so you could weigh it. Then you could have sold it to the press! :)

strapworld said...

Conservatives should now change their policy.

What a vote winner. Free tickets to Disneyworld for every voter!

JuliaM said...

"I wonder if DC will spot this open electoral goal?"

If he did, he'd only boot it over the net...

Conand said...

@ Plato

The State Dept briefing notes. They were fairly rude about UK in particular.
Those partly illustrate why:

I surprised myself and voted for Europe. Even little ol' Anti-Federalism me!!
Given a choice between the City of Gold and Brussels, I really had to go for the latter. If even an Obama State Dept can be totally parochial!!??
Plus I agreed with Angela and Sarko about the massive discretionary stimulus that we couldn't afford.
Plus I really like Belgium, Wallonia/Ardennes especially.

Ian Titherington said...

Are these the very same voters who scoff at Plaid wanting to be independent of the UK?
We then compound things further by wanting to be a recognised state within Europe. Oh well, I have clearly suffered from not having the Daily Mail with breakfast every morning.

It was great to see you at our conference on the weekend by the way and your contribution in the fringe meeting on blogging was one of the highlights. With such a scant Welsh media, the political internet in Wales is likely to stay ahead of the game, perhaps with the exception of Welsh Labour!

Plato said...

Thanks Conand, will have a butchers

Nick Thornsby said...

Not particularly remarkable.

As a non-Conservative (or conservative) reader of your blog, I rarely take part in the surveys you post, Iain, because it is nearly always obvious what the result is going to be.

It's like a survey on the Daily Mail website: never any surprising results.

Unknown said...

It would have been more interesting if you had a three way poll: Europe, America, or an independent free-wheeling Britain as the Hong Kong of Europe. I think that is what most people would really want.

Patrick said...

ah, but you influenced the vote!

Cath said...

it would also be interesting if this survey had been done a year ago. I suspect the figures for the US would have been somewhat lower.

Jabba the Cat said...

It is reassuring that even with the current black & white minstrel show on the other side of the pond, we still recognise which nation is more reliable than others in times of great crisis.

Victor, NW Kent said...

I didn't vote as my preference was not available.

In Europe we have only fair weather friends. With the US we have the chance to become a quasi-independent satrapy, perhaps preserved like a game reserve or indeed an Indian reservation.

I don't see countries like Canada or Australia or little New Zealand or giant Brazil rushing to surrender their sovereignty to a country or bundle of countries with different languages, customs or cultures. Does tiny Singapore find itself forced into some political association?

The myth that we can only succeed by yielding to others should be dispelled.

Span Ows said...

"Bear in mind that only 55% or 60% of my readers are Conservatives..."

Yes Iain but maybe 100% of those polled were!

Dr Evil said...

The Anglophone world most definitely. It is about time the Conservative party actually opted for some conservative policies.

Unknown said...

If it had been the original Western Europe of France, Germany, Spain etc. I would have voted for Europe, but I have nothing in common with the expanded Europe - which I do not remember voting for!

Desperate Dan said...

I've changed my mind about liking Europe.
I've just read that the EU is so monumentally corrupt that the greedy, unprincipled, sleazebag Tony Blair thinks he's got the Presidency of the EU in the bag.

Conand said...

@Desperate Dan @6:42

Don't worry, President Blair would be the best advert for the BOO campaign imaginable.

The Grim Reaper said...

I say we join up with the lovely people of Antarctica instead...

OldSouth said...

Well, I'm flattered, but not surprised.

But what would really help us all is if all y'all would stand up to the clowns in power, and reclaim your country.

Once again, you would inspire your cousins across the ocean.

Chris Paul said...

You don't actually know the views of your readers at large on this matter or the party allegiances of your readers at large in general. All you know about is the 1000 or so voters.

Which would be about 3% of your loyaler readership of about 30,000, according to my calculations, or 1% of your readers in any month.

It is well known that people who are against something are far more likely to be motivated to express their view than those who consent or approve of that thing.