Ian Black in Brussels Tuesday October 22, 2002 The Guardian

Britons have an unusually high level of distrust in their own government as well as in EU institutions - about which they are more ignorant than people in any other member state, according to a survey.

The latest findings from Eurobarometer, the polling arm of the European commission, show that 33% of Britons tends to trust the government. Only France, where the figure was 30%, performs worse. Average trust in national government across the EU was 47%.

In its biannual survey of EU public opinion, Eurobarometer also found that questions about the EU generate more "don't know" answers among Britons than anyone else. "Don't know, don't understand and don't trust would appear to be the UK mantra when looking at theEU," said the report.

Unsurprisingly, a referendum on joining the single currency would produce a "no" result if it were staged now, with just 31% ready to scrap the pound for the euro.

Britons are also more hostile to the euro than Sweden (52% for) and Denmark (49% for), the other two countries yet to adopt the single currency.

Some 41% of Britons pay no attention at all to Brussels. "It is this factor which generates the high level of 'don't knows' from the UK sample to many of the questions in this survey," the report said.

Even a simple question about whether EU membership was a good or bad thing produced a 15% "don't know" reading in the UK - nearly double the EU average of 8%. Just 32% of Britons thought EU membership was a good thing, well below the average of 53%.

Pro-euro campaigners seized on the figures to call for more vigorous public discussion. "It is no surprise that people in Britain feel uninformed about the euro," said Simon Buckby, of Britain in Europe.

"For the past 15 years they have suffered a daily diet of myth, misinformation, and scare stories from anti-Europeans. We know that the more informed people are, the more pro-European they become."

Gary Titley [Titley??? OG is tittering vociferously--what a cross to bear!] MEP, Labour leader in the European parliament, said there were lessons to be drawn from Saturday's Irish referendum on the EU's Nice treaty, when the yes camp won by 63% 18 months after a first ballot in which the no camp triumphed with 54%.

"We must go on the offensive and make our case in ordinary language people understand," Mr Titley said. "And make it our business to expose the scaremongering myths that have misled the British public on Europe for too long."

Eurobarometer noted that of those polled in the UK, "and actually expressing an opinion," 34% admitted to a negative attitude towards the EU. The overall EU average is less than half that figure at 15%.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2002