Articles
1. Does your company sell directly or indirectly to customers in the EU?
Yes: 75% No: 23 % Don't know: 2%
The answers to this first question show that three-quarters of our readers do business with Europe. That makes the Continent a key trading partner for the engineering sector. So the outcome of any future referendum on EU membership is likely to have a profound effect on the companies that employ engineers in this country.
2. Do you think that withdrawal from the EU would hamper trade with European markets?
Yes: 67% No: 22% Don't know: 11%
More than two-thirds of respondents thought that cross-border trade with Europe would become more difficult if the UK was to pull out and go it alone. But the write-in replies showed that readers were as confused as most by the specifics of how withdrawal might impact trade.
3. Do you think your company would have to make significant changes to its business plans if the UK left the EU?
Yes: 44% No: 44% Don't know: 12%
A surprisingly high No vote here, given the answers to the previous two questions. The write-in replies showed that there was a lot of hoping going on. Lots of readers said that, while they feared withdrawal from Europe, if it did happen there was a hope that trade with the Continent would continue as usual.
4. Would withdrawal from the EU make the UK less attractive as a base for global manufacturers?
Yes: 63% No: 21% Don't know: 16%
Fear about what would happen to cross-border trade, border controls and taxation, plus the belief that the UK has lost its status as a global manufacturer, governed the weight of responses to this question. Cutting access to vital markets and a vast talent pool would hit car manufacturing in particular at a precariously competitive time for the sector.
5. Do you think that recruiting from the EU would be more difficult if the UK left Europe?
Yes: 61% No: 32% Don't know: 7%
There was also a strong fear that the UK would become a less attractive place to work if there was a withdrawal from the European Union. Many readers thought that EU nationals would be put off working here by the fear of greater immigration red-tape. Others said that many Europeans would also resent the isolationist nature of the UK.
6. Do you view Brussels as a source of excessive bureaucracy?
Yes: 76% No: 16% Don't know: 8%
These were a really telling set of answers. All the previous results had shown that engineers were generally pro-European. But this question provoked strong opinions. Many said that the EU had become bogged down by bureaucracy and obsessed with micro-management of individual national economies. This had to change, it was said.
7. Should the UK public be offered an opportunity to vote in a referendum on whether the UK should leave the EU?
Yes: 63% No: 30% Don't know: 7%
Most engineers support calls for a referendum on Europe, saying it was the most democratic thing to do. But there was still a high No vote. Many readers said that the referendum on membership of the European Economic Community in 1975 had already delivered a Yes, so another vote wasn’t required. Others said No because they felt the general public wasn’t clever enough to understand the issues at hand.
8. Do you support the UK’s ongoing membership of the EU?
Yes: 71% No: 19% Don't know: 10%
And so to the heart of the matter. Do engineers support the UK’s ongoing membership of the EU? The results were conclusive and the arguments were clear: many readers felt that it would be insane for the UK to cut itself off from the rest of Europe, and that it would inevitably damage trade. That said, lots of readers who voted Yes went on to say that the UK needed to renegotiate its terms of membership of the EU, as the UK pays in too much and gets too little back.