European Survey Success (Hammersmith and Fulham Liberal Democrats)

Hammersmith and Fulham Liberal Democrats <info@hflibdems.org.uk>

European Survey Success

March 25, 2010 10:27 PM
By Jon Burden

Liberal Democrats have found that voters in Hammersmith and Fulham are more positive about Europe than expected, and contrary to the general perception, have been receptive to positive news and policies on European issues.

For some years we have been drawing voters' attention in our campaign literature to the link between our local priorities and European Union action on issues like air quality, carbon storage and recycling. Heathrow is an important local issue, and we have asked residents about using EU air quality rules to stop the third runway. The vast majority favoured using EU regulations to stop expansion - an issue on which our London MEP Sarah Ludford has campaigned, and a policy position neither Labour nor the Tories dare to express.

The emphasis on Europe was helped by the selection of local Liberal Democrat activist Dinti Batstone as a candidate for London in the European elections in 2009. Dinti's active and energetic campaign included a survey to find out residents' views about Europe, and a "Euro-quiz" to challenge voters to see if they could tell "Euro-myth from Euro-fact".

The campaign team was surprised by how well the Euro-survey was received, with a good response rate and respondents taking time consider their answers and complete the survey. In fact we had several offers of help with our campaigning as a result.

The questions were grounded in Lib Dem policy, but designed to counter the scare-stories so often seen in our anti-European press -bringing out for example the fact that there are more British citizens living in the Costa del Sol than Polish citizens living in London. The care respondents gave to answering the quiz shows that Europe is not a subject that turns voters off, but it also exposed how misinformed some were.

Our survey asked the direct question: "Do you consider yourself: Very Pro- European, Pro-European, Indifferent, Anti-European". Overall, about half of respondents said they are pro-European, a much higher percentage than we expected. This may be because of the cosmopolitan nature of Hammersmith & Fulham which has a very high proportion of non-British born residents. However it may also reflect the fact that the current anti-European media climate inhibits many people from expressing positive views about Europe, and in support of using our membership of the European Union to improve the quality of life for people in this country.