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Still No Takers for United Ireland
Andrew McCann has noted the publication of the 2005 Northern Ireland Life & Times survey this week and, much like last year, the results aren't great for those who want to leave the United Kingdom. This year's survey had a sample size of 1,200.
I've mapped out the answers for what I judge the 2 big tribal questions over the past 8 years below and there don't really seem to be any discernable upwards or downwards trends, with most figures staying within +/- 4% of an average value. What the results do show is that consistantly almost 2½ times as many people in Northern Ireland are expressing a preference for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK than are for merging it into an all-Ireland republic.
Follow up:
Highlights:
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Northern Irelands Future | |||||||||
Remain in UK | 58% | 59% | 55% | 55% | 50% | 60% | 56% | 57% | |
Unify with Eire | 23% | 22% | 24% | 22% | 28% | 17% | 21% | 22% | |
Independence | 7% | 11% | 7% | 7% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 6% | |
Nationality | |||||||||
British | 39% | 47% | 41% | 45% | 45% | 49% | 45% | 41% | |
Irish | 28% | 27% | 27% | 28% | 30% | 22% | 29% | 27% | |
Northern Irish | 27% | 21% | 24% | 19% | 27% | 20% | 19% | 23% |
I think questions have to be raised though, when you look at the results for voting preference, only 9% say they'd vote Sinn Fein, which isn't really consistent with their 24% of the vote in the 2005 Westminster election, nor does the DUP's 18% support tally with their 34% in the same elections. It would make you wonder either about how honest the answers were or how representative the sample was.