In the 1975 referendum England provided the strongest support for European integration, with a much smaller margin for membership in Scotland and Northern Ireland. By 2015 the rank order of ‘national’ attitudes to European integration had reversed. Now, England is the UK's most eurosceptic nation and may vote ‘Leave’, while Scotland seems set to generate a clear margin for ‘Remain’. The UK as a whole is a Brexit marginal. To understand the campaign, we need to make sense of the dynamics of public attitudes in each nation. We take an ‘archaeological’ approach to a limited evidence‐base, to trace the development of attitudes to Europe in England since 1975. We find evidence of a link between English nationalism and euroscepticism. Whatever the result in 2016, contrasting outcomes in England and Scotland will exacerbate tensions in the UK's territorial constitution and could lead to the break‐up of Britain.

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This article presents findings from a new survey of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), conducted in 2010. It explains the purpose of the survey, its content, the survey methodology and the potential limitations of the sample obtained. The article then presents results from the survey to explore the determinants of MEPs' policy preferences and, more specifically, whether MEPs from recent enlargement states continue to differ from those of longer‐standing EU Member States. The findings here indicate that ‘enlargement’ MEPs remain somewhat farther to the right, but are no longer more cautious about integration. The results also reinforce the importance of ideology, even more than nationality, as a factor underpinning MEPs' political attitudes.

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Despite considerable advances in methods to examine leaders’ personal characteristics using at–a–distance assessment, few studies have applied such techniques outside of the national level. This study reveals that such approaches can provide analytical leverage for examining executive heads of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The personal characteristics of six United Nations Secretaries–General and four European Union Commission Presidents were measured via content analysis of their responses to questions. Separately, their behavior in office was measured via historical accounts and analyses. In general, executive heads with higher expansionist leadership style scores displayed a greater willingness to try to enhance the status of their organizations.