University students quiz public on EU poll
Posted on 26 May 2004
Will the voters have made a conscious decision to choose someone they consider the best MEP, or will they pass a thinly-disguised verdict on Prime Minister Blair, Iraq, or whether we have a referendum on Europe?
Their survey will provide a snapshot of what a very typical set of voters think, and the students will then analyse the results to see what they mean.
The answers to these questions will be presented at a public forum before the results of the official elections are known.
The EU elections on 'Super Thursday' - 10 June - coincide with local government elections elsewhere, but the results of all the elections won't be known until the weekend. This will feed media speculation over the results, predicts Dr Roger Pierce, the academic who has set the students the survey.
"It's likely that the gap between the elections and the weekend will feed news media interest," he said. "I think it is highly relevant for the students to do this research to ask people in fairly relaxed conversations whether the results are really a vote for or against the EU itself, or on Tony Blair and Iraq, for example.
"Also, what are the implications for the autumn when people in the region will have a vote on whether we want a regional assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber? What difference will people feel it makes to their sense of identity, and will they vote accordingly?"
Dr Pierce added: "The views of a thousand residents of York - a city long considered representative of England as a whole - will be significant."
The students, 15 teams of 8, will also track news coverage, and interview MEP candidates.
Their findings will be complete by Super Thursday itself and presented at a press conference.
Last year first-year students in the Department of Politics undertook a similar exercise, asking the question 'Why are the British so anti-Euro? Or don't they really care?'
Key findings last year, in the run-up to the Chancellor's statement on 'joining the euro' and the publication of the draft EU constitution, were that most people are indifferent, rather than pro or anti Europe; men are more pro-European than women; and the media appears heavily to influence people's attitudes towards Europe.
Notes to editors:
- The Department of Politics is one of the largest in the United Kingdom
- It has consistently made teaching one of its top priorities, offering students, on all its degree courses, a wide range of subjects for study, and an exceptionally high degree of choice.
- It has always been open to innovation, both in teaching approaches and in methods of appraisal. Its teaching strengths spring from the research interests of its staff who are engaged in research in a wide variety of areas, and include scholars who have earned international reputations.