Our survey. If there is English separatism among Conservative activists, it’s well concealed.

The answers have barely moved since we asked the same question last August – a tribute to the consistency of the survey panel members.

Those to whom the Union isn’t important at all are a tiny fraction of the whole, four per cent. The August figure was five per cent.

Add the seven per cent to whom it is “fairly unimportant” (exactly the same figure six months ago), and one reaches 12 per cent, scarcely more than a tenth of the total. If there’s English separatism among party members, it’s well concealed.

Fifty-three per cent say that the Union is of paramount importance to them – 55 per cent in August – and 32 per cent that it is of some importance to them. That’s 85 per cent of the whole. As we said yesterday, Party members are red, white and blue.

Mind you, if you add together all those who don’t say that the Union is of paramount importance to them, you get 44 per cent. Perhaps that’s a bit of an artificial exercise, but it is over two in five of the total.

Its biggest chunk is of course made up of that 32 per cent, and perhaps in a future poll we should dig deeper.

What’s more important to them? Prosperity? A small state? Brexit? As ever, your guess is as good as ours, or better.

Originally found on Conservative Home Read More