Abstract:

In the spring of 1971 Social and Community Planning Research was invited by the European Movement to conduct a major survey of public attitudes to Britain and her possible links with the European Economic Community or Common Market. Like the polls, the survey showed that many people were hostile to Britain's joining. In spite of majority opposition, however, it seemed that the issue was not considered very important by the public at large; and on 1st January 1973 Britain formally joined the EEC. Our 1974 survey was funded by a grant from the European Educational Research Trust to monitor changes in public attitudes that had taken place since 1971. This paper first briefly describes the results of two surveys of British attitudes towards the Common Market, conducted in 1971 and 1974 by Social and Community Planning Research. Afterwards we shall review very briefly research conducted in Denmark and in Norway before their referenda.