MORI's latest survey, undertaken March 28-31, found only a bare plurality approving of the way the prime minister is handling the current situation with Iraq, 47 per cent approve and 44 per cent disapprove — or a net plus three.
Millions of Americans as well as millions of the British have demonstrated their opposition to the war in Iraq by taking to the streets of New York, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh and in other cities and towns all over America and Britain.
The final polls to be published before the war in Iraq started, conducted last weekend, all found a shift in public opinion in favour of British involvement in the war but still found a majority disapproving, both of military action and of Tony Blair's handling of the Iraq crisis.
Few political issues so dominate the public consciousness as the Iraq crisis is doing at the moment: 55% of the public named defence/foreign affairs as the single most important issue facing the country in the last MORI Political Monitor, and a further 7% chose nuclear weapons or disarmament. The National Health Service, the public's perennial obsession, is now of primary concern only to 6% - almost unprecedentedly, not even in the top three.
Whom do we trust? Certainly not politicians nor journalists. Doctors, yes, and no doubt nurses. Certainly teachers, professors, judges and priests, but not everyone trusts even them to tell the truth. One person in five say they don't believe that either judges or the clergy can be trusted.
The United States of America has a PR problem. It's not just that they are overpaid, over weight, and over here, although they are, it's that they are misunderstood. That's a big problem for the US of A, for the President, George W. Bush, and it is certainly a problem for Britain's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at this time of world tension.
