Protests begin but majority backs Bush visit as support for war surges Alan Travis and David Gow Tuesday November 18, 2003 The Guardian http://politics.guardian.co.uk/polls/story/0,11030,1087548,00.html 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. Mr Blair insisted last night that he had made the right decision in inviting Mr Bush to Britain as an unprecedented security operation got under way to prepare for his arrival today. More than 14,000 police officers at a cost of £5m will be on duty during the four-day visit, with tens of thousands of anti-war protesters expected to take to the streets. 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". It also may explain the beginnings of a recovery in Tony Blair's personal ratings in this month's Guardian poll. He still remains an unpopular prime minister with 52% unhappy with the job he is doing, compared with 40% who say they are satisfied with his performance. But the prime minister's net popularity rating of minus 12 points is a significant improvement over last month's net rating of minus 18 points. 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. Labour voters are more enthusiastic about the visit than Tory voters. But it is only Liberal Democrats who are marginally more unhappy about his arrival, with 43% against and 39% willing to welcome him. A majority of "twentysomethings" welcome Mr Bush. Hostility is strongest amongst the over-65s. There is a clear gender gap in attitudes with a majority of men - 51% - welcoming the president's arrival, compared with only 35% of women. 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". Mr Blair told the CBI national conference in Birmingham yesterday of his support for the war on terrorism, saying: "Now is not the time to waver but see it through." In unscripted remarks, he said the weekend terrorist bombings in Turkey, the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia and continuing bombings in Iraq, meant Britain should "stand firm with the United States of America in defeating terrorism wherever it is and delivering us safely from what I genuinely believe is the security threat of the 21st century". But Mr Blair made plain he completely backed the EU's stance against the US over illegal tariffs on steel imports, insisting that Washington must now respond to the World Trade Organisation ruling: "There will be from time to time these disagreements on issues to do with trade and we must stick very firmly to our position." The prime minister also reaffirmed his vision of Britain as a bridge between the US and Europe. "I firmly believe we have two big foreign policy pillars, the US alliance and our position in the EU. There's absolutely no reason to yield up either and we will not," he said to loud applause. · ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,002 adults aged 18 and over by telephone between November 14-16, 2003. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ____________ Rather than contradicting a previous poll I think this does a good job of strengthening the argument that most "Bush-haters" aren't anti-american instead just anti-Bush.
LOL, check it out, the proud Sailors of the USS LIncoln have apparently been putting up more banners for the president...this one reminding him where he is in case he forgets.
The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 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". lol Talking about a slanted poll. Look at the wording. I guess you could say that: 38% believe that "generally speaking the US is a force for evil, not good in the world." Fortunately, there is still a reservoir of good will toward the US despite Dubya. Another unnecessary war or two by the neocons and you might find the 38% going to over 50%.
for the anti-Bush folks here, there's a great scene in the new movie Love Actually between Hugh Grant (who plays the UK Prime Minister) and Billy Bob Thornton (who plays the US President)
Relax. Don' t you find at least somewhat amusing (if not disturbing) that the president cannot appear publically without having to send subliminal messages to us in all caps font? Doesn't this particular one seem kind of silly? I mean, at least there's a discernible purpose behinds the ones that say "Jobs and Growth" "Protecting the Homeland" etc. This one just says where he is. Who's bright idea was that? Obviously there must have been a shakeup in the Executive Office of All Caps Font Speech Backgrounds.
You'd think they wouldn't have so much time to make all these signs with a giant ship to work on --- they must be volunteering to do this during their leave.
here is another perspective from across the pond. http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20031118&fname=monbiot&sid=1 George Bush, The Anti-American Let us peacefully flood the streets of London on Thursday, not because we hate George Bush's country, but because we love the values it is supposed to embody. Perhaps the gravest of the charges we can lay against him is that he is himself an anti-American. GEORGE MONBIOT Something unprecedented will happen in Britain this week. An American president will arrive here and be greeted not by cheering crowds but by howls of execration. The protests in London against George Bush are likely to be the biggest Britain has seen since the anti-war marches in February. The people of the United States will be deeply shocked to see how the image of their government has changed. Those of us who oppose George Bush's policies are often accused of being "anti-American". It's an odd charge. No one suggests that people who don't like Tony Blair are "anti-British". It seems to be an attempt to discredit us by suggesting that we are motivated not by reasonable political objections, but by an old and visceral contempt for an "upstart nation". But perhaps the gravest of the charges we can lay against George Bush is that he is himself an anti-American. His style of government stands at odds with everything we were led to believe the United States of America represents. There is first the question of his election. The evidence that the electoral roll in Florida was rigged in order to exclude black voters appears to be compelling. The conduct of his party both during and after that election appears to be a grotesque insult to the nation which invented modern, Jacksonian democracy. Then there is his assault upon civil liberties. The Patriot Act he pushed through Congress erodes many of the freedoms the American constitution appears to guarantee. In the offshore prison camp of Guantanamo Bay, Bush appears to have built his own Bastille, in which people are jailed indefinitely without charge or trial. George Washington and Thomas Paine must be turning in their graves. But the greatest of all his offences against American values is his construction of what looks very much like an imperial project. If the US stands for anything in the popular imagination it stands for national sovereignty and self-determination. It tore itself away from a grasping empire - our own - and declared its opposition to all subsequent attempts to bend sovereign peoples to the will of a distant nation. It came to the rescue of its old imperial oppressor when our own sovereignty was threatened by Hitler, and ever since then we have identified America as the champion of those nations which struggle against occupying powers. But now Bush has invaded and conquered a sovereign nation and installed in it a regime scarcely distinguishable from the old European colonial authorities. To make this occupation possible, he and his staff appear to have misled us on several occasions. We were told that Iraq had to be invaded because it possessed weapons of mass destruction which threatened the lives of the people of other nations. We now know that the US government possessed plenty of intelligence showing that this was unlikely to be true. We were told that Saddam Hussein was establishing links with Al Qaeda. It now seems that there was no substantive evidence that this was taking place; indeed Al Qaeda appears to have begun entering Iraq only when Saddam was deposed. We were told that Iraq had to be invaded because George Bush and Tony Blair could not bear to leave its people suffering under such a monstrous regime. But the same governments are now providing military and diplomatic assistance to the president of Uzbekistan, who boils his political opponents to death. All this has become our problem, as well as that of the Americans and the Iraqis, because whenever George Bush says "jump", Tony Blair asks "off which high building?" It appears that the White House can hatch no project which is doomed or crazy enough to prevent Blair from joining in.It is a constant source of mystery to me that British patriots expend so much energy in complaining about threats to our sovereignty from the European Union, yet somehow choose to overlook the graver threat presented by our subordination to Bush's government. Blair has surrendered our foreign and defence policy to Washington. The defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, has even begun to restructure our armed forces to make them structurally and functionally subordinate to those of the US. This week, Tony Blair will be showing Bush around town much as an imperial prefect might have led the Roman emperor around a newly-acquired domain. We cannot depose this new emperor (it is even doubtful whether his own citizens can do so), but we can show him that his policies, and our government's submission to them are unwelcome here. It is sometimes easy to forget, in the midst of a furious crowd, that all our liberties were acquired not through polite representation, but by means of insurrection and protest - from the Boston tea party to the demonstrations of the suffragettes. When the governing powers lose sight of the people, protest is often the only means of reminding our leaders that we still exist. It is messy and troublesome, but it is often all we have. Our purpose is to show the American people that even the people of the nation Bush regards as his closest political ally reject his policies. Nothing could be more damaging to a man whose credibility is already gravely challenged at home. Let us peacefully flood the streets of London on Thursday, not because we hate George Bush's country, but because we love the values it is supposed to embody.
from the Daily Mirror on November 17, 2003 THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO GREAT BRITAIN That's this itty bitty country due east of the States where folks talk kinda weird, Mr President By Ruki Sayid And Damien Fletcher 1, LONDON is the capital of the UK which is an independent country and not your 51st State. 2, OUR Sovereign is Queen Elizabeth II (that's pronounced second not eleven ) . You must not put your arm around her and call her "honey" or "l'il lady". She is to be addressed as "Your Majesty" or "Ma'am" at all times. 3, HER eldest son is called Prince Charles not "Chuck". Don't talk to him about butlers, valets or ask him if he's seen any good videos. 4, WHEN you sit down to a state banquet you use the cutlery starting from the outside. Big Mac and fries won't be on the menu. 5, THE RAF won the Battle of Britain not Tom Cruise or Bruce Willis. 6, WE live in a democracy and as such have the right to demonstrate so if your route is lined with thousands of anti-war protesters, don't ask for them to be extradited to Camp X-ray. 7, WE say trousers not pants - unless of course we are referring to your foreign policy. 8, WILLIAM Shakespeare, our greatest playwright, wrote Romeo and Juliet, not Zefferelli. Don't ask to meet Will - he's dead. 9, BE sure to register for the congestion charge when your motorcade drives through London or mayor Ken Livingstone will hit you with a £40 fine for every car. 10, WE put milk in our tea, not ice, have toast not waffles for breakfast and walk on the pavement not the sidewalk. Have a nice day...not!
Anyway, back to the substance, you'll find that lots of foreigners ARE overwhelmingly pro american (american meaning you, me, coke and mcdonalds etc) while being overwhelmingly anti-Bush:
I don't really get this stat. Some in that 43% might be welcoming his arrival so they can protest him in person. Some in that 36% might like Bush but don't want to put up with the traffic that comes with his arrival.
Why have you stopped reading lately? If you actually look at the poll, you'll find that number would be 15%, with 23% don't know/no response.
I am over in the UK right now, and the prevailing thought is that the majority support the USA, but they question a lot of the tactics we are using. However, they concede that the USA is in much tougher cities and areas then they are. Britain and it's people are still a strong supporter of the USA. DD
