This chapter assesses British party policy (as expressed in general and European election manifestos) and public opinion (using Eurobarometer data) towards the Single MarketSingle Market and its consequences. The chapter then analyses party and public views towards two spill-over effects associated with the Single Market—integration in the realm of social policy and the free movement of people. The chapter demonstrates that in the late 1980s and early 1990s public opinion towards the Single Market’s creation was consistently more positive than negative. Yet public enthusiasm lagged significantly behind the strong support of the Conservative government. The British public were far more positive about social policy integration than the Conservative government at the onset of the 1990s. However, public positivity declined by the time Labour entered office in 1997. Finally, British society was divided over whether the free movement of people was a good thing—a feature that, ahead of the 2016 EU referendum, the main parties responded to by proposing to tighten restrictions on EU migrants’ access to welfare and imposing longer transition controls on the free movement rights of citizens from new member states.

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The Single Market

  • Stuart Smedley

摘要

This chapter assesses British party policy (as expressed in general and European election manifestos) and public opinion (using Eurobarometer data) towards the Single MarketSingle Market and its consequences. The chapter then analyses party and public views towards two spill-over effects associated with the Single Market—integration in the realm of social policy and the free movement of people. The chapter demonstrates that in the late 1980s and early 1990s public opinion towards the Single Market’s creation was consistently more positive than negative. Yet public enthusiasm lagged significantly behind the strong support of the Conservative government. The British public were far more positive about social policy integration than the Conservative government at the onset of the 1990s. However, public positivity declined by the time Labour entered office in 1997. Finally, British society was divided over whether the free movement of people was a good thing—a feature that, ahead of the 2016 EU referendum, the main parties responded to by proposing to tighten restrictions on EU migrants’ access to welfare and imposing longer transition controls on the free movement rights of citizens from new member states.