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The Left Alliance and the Centre Party were the most eurosceptic before Finland joined the EU. The mainstream centre-right Coalition and Social Democrats have always been very pro EU.
The unions used to be strongly against the EU, the unions trust the EU more than the Conservatives to protect worker's rights, that's all their is to it. Alongside some possible corruption.
probably because the UK is generally more to the right on economics and labor laws on average than the EU-wide rules?
The left used to be more Eurosceptic, mostly because they saw the EU as an evil globalist agenda to destroy the working classes, etc etc. The right, being the traditional proponents of globalisation, did not care at all about that. Thatcher supported the single market (but took a hard stance to win some concessions).
How much a lot of the British left hated Brexit seemed bizarre to me, I expected more of an "old left" viewpoint.
Seems likely Corbyn voted for Brexit and Teresa May against.
probably because the UK is generally more to the right on economics and labor laws on average than the EU-wide rules?
Some like to suggest that, but Britain has historically been a world leader in the field of worker's rights. In fact many EU regulations were basically copies of existing UK laws.
The left tend to be younger, it's always been that way. People generally become more conservative with age.
that's kinda true; but there's a lot of evidence that people adopt most of their political views in their 20s; the generation that came of age under Reagan is far more conservative than George Bush or early Obama years, for example. The generation older than those who lived under Reagan in their 20s is a bit more liberal.
I think in general, most people's views stay the same, but their priorities change over time. Younger generations in the UK are apparently more right-wing than the Boomers economically, but more left-wing socially, so I think many young people place greater emphasis on social issues than older generations who probably don't care as much (if at all).
Another thing is that older people today might have been 'liberal' by the standards of the 1970s but less so by the standards of today (and by the same token, left-wing parties of the 1970s were probably less liberal as well). I have no doubt young people today will appear conservative in 40-50 years compared to younger generations as well.
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