Pro-American Britain
: The Guardian bravely reports — contrary to reports in other media on both sides of the Atlantic — that Britain is not seething with anti-Americanism (my emphases).
A majority of Labour voters welcome President George Bush’s state visit to Britain which starts today, according to November’s Guardian/ICM opinion poll.
The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 62% of voters believing that the US is “generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world”. It explodes the conventional political wisdom at Westminster that Mr Bush’s visit will prove damaging to Tony Blair. Only 15% of British voters agree with the idea that America is the “evil empire” in the world….
The ICM poll also uncovers a surge in pro-war sentiment in the past two months as suicide bombers have stepped up their attacks on western targets and troops in Iraq. Opposition to the war has slumped by 12 points since September to only 41% of all voters. At the same time those who believe the war was justified has jumped 9 points to 47% of voters.
This swing in the mood of British voters is echoed in the poll’s finding that two-thirds of voters believe British and American troops should not pull out of Iraq now but instead stay until the situation is “more stable”….
The detailed results of the poll show that more people – 43% – say they welcome George Bush’s arrival in Britain than the 36% who say they would prefer he did not come….
Pro-Americanism, as might be expected, is strongest among Tory voters with 71% saying the US is a force for good. But it is nearly matched by the 66% of Labour voters who say the US is a force for good. Anti-Americanism is strongest among Liberal Democrat voters but is still only shared by 24% of them and the majority see the US as the “good guys”….
You can make fun of the Guardian but at the end of the day, you have to respect its journalistic integrity for reporting this forthrightly and as the top story online.
