The Attack On America

The first measurements of British public opinion on the terrorist attack on the USA, and the appropriate response to it, are now beginning to be published. MORI's poll for the News of the World [British Reaction To Attacks On America], conducted on Friday evening and published on Sunday, was (as far as we know) the first; ICM in the Guardian followed on Tuesday. There was a Gallup poll conducted in 30 countries over the same weekend, and a separate Gallup poll for the Telegraph, conducted on the 17th-18th September.

In a number of other countries, especially of course the USA itself, polls were conducted and published more quickly. (For comprehensive and regularly updated coverage of the American polls, see the indispensable www.pollingreport.com; for comment and analysis the Gallup Organization's site, www.gallup.com, is also excellent. The Daily Telegraph on 18 September carried a useful round-up of findings from other European countries - EU leaders to hold emergency summit on security).

In fact we were able to take advantage of the polls that had already been reported from three countries, the USA, France and Russia, in designing our poll for the News of the World, using the same question wording so as to allow for direct comparison between public opinion in those countries and in Britain.

Q As you know, last Tuesday the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the United States were attacked by terrorists. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the American response to this week's terrorist attacks?

Qa If the United States can identify the groups or nations responsible for this week's attacks, would you support or oppose taking military action against them?

Qb What if that meant getting into a war? In that case would you support or oppose taking military action?

Qc What if it meant innocent civilians in other countries might be hurt or killed? In that case would you support or oppose taking military action?

It is clearly significant to note that British support for action drops off more sharply than does American support when the prospect of getting into a war, and even more so the possibility of innocent civilian casualties, are raised.

ROMIR's survey of 500 Muscovites found Russians even more worried about the prospect of a similar attack in their country than are the British about an attack here. The French, though, seem to have more confidence in their security forces.

Q How worried are you that something like this can happen ...?

Q How much confidence do you have in the British/French authorities to prevent such actions in this country?

* The French answer categories were "tout а fait confiance", "assez confiance", "peu confiance" and "pas confiance du tout".

The MORI/News of the World poll found 74% supporting British troops being involved if the US were to take action against those responsible for the attacks, and a little lower (69%) support for British and American military action against countries that assist or shelter terrorists; ICM's figures from slightly differently-worded questions, and fieldwork from Friday to Sunday, were 66% and 59% respectively. We can compare this with support for British involvement in other military action in the past, though it should be noted that the wording of the earlier questions differs, sometimes significantly, and that some questions were posed before military action was taken and others afterwards: