A survey of Scottish fishermen ahead of Brexit: political, social and constitutional attitudes

Craig Mcangus

doi:10.1007/s40152-018-0090-z

Abstract

There is a substantial amount of literature that focuses on the governance of offshore fisheries in Europe and abroad, the history of fishing industries in different countries, and anthropological studies of fishing communities around the world. There is also a large amount of literature that explores the attitudes of fishermen towards fisheries governance and management. However, there is very little research that has explored the political attitudes of fishermen through the use of quantitative survey data. Using a survey carried out just ahead of the referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, this paper analyses data from a sample of Scottish skippers who work on vessels over 10 m in length. The paper focuses on how fishermen in Scotland vote at both UK and Scottish elections, how they voted in the Scottish independence and EU referendums, their political and social attitudes and their demographic breakdown. On the EU referendum, the paper finds that fishermen, as well intending to overwhelmingly voting to leave the EU, did so for instrumental reasons in the belief that this course of action would benefit them and their industry.

Highlights

There is a sizeable body of literature that provides insights into the lives of fishermen, their families, their communities and their industry
This paper aims to fill this gap using data from a sample of a survey sent out to skippers in the weeks leading up the EU referendum
Despite there being a substantial amount of literature on fishermen and their families, the attitudes of fishermen to management and governance of fisheries, and the policy element of the governance of fisheries, there is a lack of literature that tries to understand how they vote and what their social and political values are using survey methodology

Summary

Introduction

There is a sizeable body of literature that provides insights into the lives of fishermen, their families, their communities and their industry. From a social science and humanities perspective, the disciplines of history, sociology and anthropology have provided the bulk of this research. The UK voted on June 23rd 2016 to leave the EU, and the UK Government is currently negotiating with the EU over what the UK’s relationship with the EU will look like in future, fisheries being an important element of this. This vote will undoubtedly affect the entire UK population, there are few groups who will be as directly affected as fishermen. It was little surprise to find that fishermen in the UK were overwhelmingly in favour of leaving the EU (McAngus and Usherwood 2017)

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Conclusion