The polling company Populus was quick to jump on the band wagon of David Owen's proposals for a double-question referendum on Britain's relationship with Europe which I wrote about in Looking Around on Sunday.
Questioning of two thousand adults took place online at the weekend and the raw results were published in The Times newspaper yesterday.
The questions were in two parts: whether the respondents wanted a referendum in principle - 49 percent said Yes and now, 33 per cent said Yes at some time in the next few years, leaving 18 percent saying there was no need for a referendum in the foreseeable future.
The questioning went on to use Lord Owen's suggested alternatives for the future -- either remaining in the European Union with the option of joining a more integrated eurozone, or becoming part of a newly created single market in a wider European Community.
The choice of remaining in the existing EU got a 36 percent Yes with a 40 percent No and 19 per cent don't know; the respective figures for a new single market were 32, 40 and 27 percent.
On these figures the call for an immediate vote does not have a majority and the crucial gap of only four points between staying in the EU and leaving it is surprisingly narrow given all the difficulties it is having at the moment.
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