We Do Like Europe After All

Nick Clegg will be relieved that an ICM poll in today’s Guardian puts the LibDems back on 20%, after several uncomfortable weeks bumping around in the teens. But in many ways more fascinating are the poll’s findings about the British public’s changing attitude towards the European Union. A full 58% of people interviewed think Britain’s EU membership is a good thing, as opposed to 35% who think it is bad. That’s a considerable improvement over the results of a similar poll a decade ago. Moreover, among 18-24 year olds, the EU approval rating is 76%, with the lowest level of support being expressed by pensioners — which suggests that demographics are working in favour of the pro-Europeans.

This was heartwarming news for the London LibDem Euro-team, which broke off from campaigning in the Leyton by-election in Waltham Forest to hold a strategy meeting over lunch at the excellent and modestly priced Oceano Portuguese restaurant in Leyton High Road. This is a relatively new addition to the culinary and cultural choices in the area, and yet more evidence of the way that London is being enriched in very practical ways by EU membership. When I had a flat round the corner, in the 1990s, I never imagined I would one dqay have been able to find a weekend feijoada washed down with a delicious alentejano on my doorstep!

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