A survey in England

Abstract This paper reports the findings of research into attitudes towards Europe, European identity and European integration prevailing among United Kingdom intellectuals. Using a sample of representative academics from a typical British university, the researchers discovered a strong sense of European identity and a widespread belief in the need for further European integration, though differences in view emerged concerning the forms that such integration could or should take. The paper also reflects the respondents’ criticisms of what they took to be the rather insular, and anti‐European attitudes which they saw as being widespread throughout society, attitudes which they explained by reference to the historical development of an island people and its nexus of commercial, political and ethnic relations with its Commonwealth and with the United States of America.