Wednesday, March 17, 2004
BRITAIN 50/50 NATION A short look through some links to polling courtesy the Plastic Gangster showed up some quite interesting aspects to opinions in the UK in regards to Iraq. (There's some good news about general Iraqi satisfaction with their situation too.)
One of the big themes running through most of the answers in UK public opinion is near 50/50 divide on the issues.
As seen in this poll: While it's good to see that the majority of respondents think regime change was right, 48% in favour and 43% against is a very slim majority. A rather strange result was that the majority believes the invasion has made Britain less safe, but improved America’s security. How so? Quite interesting is that the majority thinks Britain's close relationship to the US is good for Britain, but a majority believes Blair's close relationship to Bush is bad for Britain, a case of personalized politics.
Slightly stranger are the results for the question as to what justifies the UK going to war, where 13% don’t think we are justified going to war against someone who attacked us. Also a little bothering that barely a majority support taking out terrorists. The one bizarre point though is that 59% think we should go to war against countries possessing wmd. What?! Let's think of some countries: North Korea, Iran, where two-thirds say no to action, without realising the obvious contradiction in their positions. Well there are plenty of others: China, Russia, Syria, Israel, France, Pakistan, . . . . and, well, closer to home so to speak, the United Kingdom. So a majority of the British public support attacking ourselves? Anyway. . . The point is of course, as a leader in the Spectator once put it: It’s the regime, stupid.
The 50/50 tendency weakens a little when it comes to the question EU or USA, where half say we should side more closely with the US as opposed to a third who say we should be more in tune with France and Germany.
One of the big themes running through most of the answers in UK public opinion is near 50/50 divide on the issues.
As seen in this poll: While it's good to see that the majority of respondents think regime change was right, 48% in favour and 43% against is a very slim majority. A rather strange result was that the majority believes the invasion has made Britain less safe, but improved America’s security. How so? Quite interesting is that the majority thinks Britain's close relationship to the US is good for Britain, but a majority believes Blair's close relationship to Bush is bad for Britain, a case of personalized politics.
Slightly stranger are the results for the question as to what justifies the UK going to war, where 13% don’t think we are justified going to war against someone who attacked us. Also a little bothering that barely a majority support taking out terrorists. The one bizarre point though is that 59% think we should go to war against countries possessing wmd. What?! Let's think of some countries: North Korea, Iran, where two-thirds say no to action, without realising the obvious contradiction in their positions. Well there are plenty of others: China, Russia, Syria, Israel, France, Pakistan, . . . . and, well, closer to home so to speak, the United Kingdom. So a majority of the British public support attacking ourselves? Anyway. . . The point is of course, as a leader in the Spectator once put it: It’s the regime, stupid.
The 50/50 tendency weakens a little when it comes to the question EU or USA, where half say we should side more closely with the US as opposed to a third who say we should be more in tune with France and Germany.
