News and Blog

The Liberal Democrats are the party most people expect to do well out of Brexit. Virtually destroyed in the 2015 general election, Brexit has given them something to rebuild their support around, by pitching themselves as the only (UK-wide) major party determined to reverse the result of the EU Referendum and keep the UK in…

The Conservatives have every reason to be on cloud nine these days: they have a majority in the House of Commons (albeit a small one); they have a commanding lead in the polls more typically seen for opposition parties on the way to win the next general election; they recently won a by-election against the…

WISERD has recently been awarded ESRC funding to carry out a new interdisciplinary study into how young people in the UK feel about, and are responding to, the most significant policy issue of this Parliament: the UK’s exit from the European Union. Young People and Brexit will include new and existing WISERD research, employing a variety…

Given that the EU Referendum was one of the most dominating, bitterly contested and emotional political campaigns in Britain for decades, that British politics is now and for the foreseeable future dominated by Brexit, and that support for or opposition to EU membership is a reflection of one’s deeply held political values, convictions and beliefs,  it…

  In last week’s blog we discussed the generational divide between the Millennials and their elders in terms of hostility towards Brexit, highlighting how this reflects more than a simple difference of opinion about the EU and is actually the result of deep rooted differences in national identity and political values. In this blog we take advantage…

  The EU Referendum highlighted a dramatic difference of opinion regarding the most important decision facing the British electorate for a generation, with younger voters overwhelmingly supporting EU membership while their elders voted to leave. This ‘generational divide’ has been a prominent theme in the media, which has repeatedly documented the anger and sense of ‘betrayal’ felt…

The decision to leave the European Union on 23rd June 2016 was potentially the most dramatic ever taken by the British electorate. Not only did it fly in the face of the expectations of the majority of the media, opinion pollsters and politicians (both in the UK and Europe), but it has come to dominate politics…

Elin Jones AM will open up the debate around youth engagement today at the Pierhead Building.  The event Young people, politics and the future direction of youth engagement in Wales follows on from WISERD research and will feature the screening of two short films presenting recent findings on young people’s attitudes towards and engagement with…

Since February 2016 we at WISERD have been running a small project on Young People and the EU Referendum in partnership with Youth Cymru, the Council for Wales of Voluntary Youth Services (CWVYS) and the National Assembly for Wales’ Youth Engagement Team and our talented cameraman Justin at Farsight Creative. As well as writing around 30 blogs on this site, giving presentations at…

Before the referendum our post on ‘Religion and the EU Referendum’ examined how preferences for the UK’s membership of the European Union were affected by the religious affiliations of Christian voters. We found notable differences between the denominations, with Anglicans, Methodists and Baptists supporting a withdrawal from the EU, Presbyterians and those of no religious…