Three Years On: Still Divided

23 June 2019 Comment The Brexit Vote: Right or Wrong?

Today marks the third anniversary of the EU referendum in which the country voted narrowly (by 52% to 48%) in favour of leaving the EU. Since then, the country has spent much of the last three years debating how the process of leaving has and should be handled, the terms on which we should aim […]



Fracture and Polarisation? Lessons from the Euro-Election

1 June 2019 Comment Attitudes towards topical events The Brexit process What should Brexit mean?

The outcome of the European election in Britain was truly remarkable. Record after record was broken. The Conservatives secured their worst result ever. Labour suffered its biggest reverse since it first started fighting elections as a wholly independent party in 1918. The Liberal Democrats and the SNP enjoyed their highest share of the vote in […]



Debating policy decisions after the EU referendum: Experiences from the UK’s first online deliberative polling event

22 May 2019 Comment Future of Britain after EU Referendum

Together with colleagues at Stanford University and the University of Manchester, we are undertaking a project on public attitudes towards post-Brexit policy on immigration, food policy and consumer regulation, using deliberative polling. Much more information to follow, but here, as a first step, is a description of what happened during our first round of deliberation […]



What Impact Did The Brexit Impasse Have on The Local Elections?

8 May 2019 Comment Attitudes towards topical events The Brexit process

There was a ready acceptance among politicians and commentators as the local election results gradually emerged on Thursday night and Friday morning that the outcome reflected voters’ views about Brexit. Not that they necessarily agreed as to what message the electorate were sending. Those of a Leave disposition interpreted the decline in both Conservative and […]


The Brexit Impasse: Is the Party System Fracturing Once More?

4 April 2019 Comment The Brexit process

Today regular domestic politics will provide a small interruption to the increasingly frantic attempts being made both by the government and by parliament to seek a way out of the Brexit impasse. A parliamentary by-election is being held in Newport West, following the death of Paul Flynn, a widely-respected MP on the left of the […]


Could A Soft Brexit Provide A Soft Landing?

1 April 2019 Comment What should Brexit mean?

Today, the House of Commons will be making a second attempt at identifying whether there is a proposal for Brexit that is capable of securing the backing of a majority of MPs. In an initial attempt last week, none of the eight options on which MPs were invited to vote secured an overall majority. However, […]