The Johnston Press, owners of the Mirror Group and The i have done an online survey of about 220,000 people spread over 258 local news websites about aspects of Brexit and it seems a significant majority want to remain in the single market (HERE). The results locally seem to be very similar to the national figures. Nationally, in answer to the question: Do you think we should still be part of the European single market, the result was 2:1 in favour with 56% to 28%.
And few are satisfied with the status of the negotiations at the moment with 62% unhappy against 18% who are happy - where the 18% have been for the past year wasn't clear!
Most people (88%) wouldn't change their vote if a new referendum were held tomorrow. But there was a significant difference between leavers and remainers. Only 8% of remainers would change their mind against 15% of leavers. These were equally split between those who were definitely sure they would vote differently and those who were not sure but thought they might. Nett, this amounts to about 7% leave voters who would vote differently now. This is about 1.2 million and more than enough to reverse the 2016 referendum.
The polling, carried out in conjunction with Google Surveys, is clearly not as good as that conducted by regular pollsters but they say, "The surveys took answers solely from people who said they voted in the 2016 referendum. They were limited to one response per user ID and were analysed according to ages, locations and previous votes". And it confirms the WhatUKthinks series (HERE) which shows 52% think Brexit is a mistake compared to 48% who still think it's right.
I am encouraged by it I must say. We are in a sort of phoney war period where nothing is really changing and the way ahead shrouded in fog. The next few months will see the fog begin to disperse and our final destination will become clearer. It will not be anything like as comfortable, prosperous or secure as the European home we have just decided to leave. When the British people realise they were hoodwinked into voting to become poorer with "benefits" that were either completely nebulous or non existent, the numbers will change dramatically. Of this I am convinced.
Whether these present numbers are likely to change the government's policy is not clear - yet. But it must be cause for a bit of circumspection.
We are undertaking an immense constitutional change. Many countries require a super majority before making even minor alterations to their constitutional settlement but we are making wholesale changes to virtually everything on the basis of 51.9% majority which doesn't even seem to exist now. Amazing.
