Quite rightly attention was focused on the recent poll of Iraqi opinion regarding the war and the subsequent occupation. But while the opinions of those who are living with the occupation are of primary importance it is still surely of interest to note the opinions in the UK.
Here are the results of an ICM poll on British attitudes. Like the Iraqi poll the figures rather weaken the case of those who will be marching on Saturday:
Thinking about the build-up to the Iraq war and everything that has happened since, do you think that taking military action was the right thing to do, or the wrong thing to do?
Right: 48%
Wrong: 43%
Don’t know: 9%
Did the government lie about WMD?
In the run up to the war with Iraq, do you think Tony Blair and his government…
Told the truth: 29%
Exaggerated but did not lie: 40%
Lied: 22%
Don’t know: 8%
Who would you trust to decide next time?
If the British government had to decide again whether to take military action, who would you trust to make the best decision?
Tony Blair: 32%
Michael Howard: 22%
Charles Kennedy: 17%
Don’t know/ None: 28%
Thinking of the following and their performance over the Iraq war, can you mark them out of 10, with 10 meaning they have done an excellent job and with 0 meaning a terrible job:
British forces: 8.3
US military: 6.6
BBC: 6.4
UN: 5.8
British intelligence: 5.6
Tony Blair: 4.9
Clare Short: 4.4
George W Bush: 4.3
France: 3.9
