Built over seams of coal and linked to the world by ancient Roman roads and the river Don, Doncaster was once prosperous. In 1980 it had ten deep mines, employing 17,000 men. They are all gone. Unlike the nearby mill towns, its population is overwhelmingly ‘white English’, and they have elected Labour MPs to their three constituencies at almost every opportunity since the 1930s, currently Rosie Winterton, Ed Miliband and Caroline Flint. In 2009, though, they elected an English Democrat mayor. And tomorrow, they will almost certainly vote to leave the EU.
On Monday, I went there with Adam Ramsay, who came down from Edinburgh, to talk with people about why.
It was easy to find men who wanted “Out”. Women were more for Remain and more reticent. Plenty had still not made up their minds. Talking to people in the centre of town is random and in no way representative. For systematic reporting of what people are saying, Ashcroft’s weekly focus groups are telling and funny. Our purpose was to listen to the reasons and texture of those wanting Out and also to meet local Labour activists to see what they thought was going on. I’d been lucky enough to join Adam in Scotland when his country had its independence referendum 19 months ago, and we found ourselves measuring what we heard against the Scottish experience.
