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Survey reveals Britons taking a dim view of US

Most Britons asked in a new poll say that the US is doing a bad job in Iraq, is indifferent to what the rest of the world thinks of it and, among its social characteristics, is racially divided, dominated by big business and obsessed with money.

The poll indicates that "there has probably never been a time when America was held in such low esteem on this side of the Atlantic," Anthony King, a professor at Essex University, wrote in an analysis of the results published in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.

The "special relationship" that British leaders have long believed exists between their country and the US "may still thrive in Downing Street and at Camp David, but it has obviously atrophied among the British public," King wrote.

Online surveys of 1,962 adults were conducted by a British polling organization, and weighted with demographic data to reflect a broad picture of the views of Britons.

Those polled had more favorable attitudes toward Americans as individuals, with 70 percent of respondents saying they liked Americans "a lot" or "a little."

But more than two-thirds said their overall opinion of the US had worsened in recent years. Its results seemed to reflect trends emerging since early 2003, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair defied much of British public opinion by siding with US President George W. Bush on Iraq.

The Telegraph quoted a US embassy spokesman as saying the US had not successfully communicated the country's "extraordinary dynamism," but also blaming the British news media for ignoring stories about the successes of US society and the US economy.

Among the respondents in the new poll, 77 percent did not see the US as a "beacon of hope for the world" and, compared with similar categories in a 1975 Gallup survey, had markedly less confidence in "America's ability to deal wisely with present world problems."

Asked to rate Bush as a leader, more than three-quarters described him as either "pretty poor" (34 percent) or "terrible" (43 percent). Seventy-two percent said his foreign policy was merely a cover for US interests.

About two-thirds of respondents said they believed that US troops were doing "a bad job" in trying "to win hearts and minds" in Iraq, while 54 percent used the same term to describe the US effort to bring democracy to Iraq.

"From this side of the Atlantic, America appears to be a class divided and racially divided society and one that fails to offer its citizens anything approaching equality of opportunity," King wrote. "Nearly three-quarters of Britons, 72 percent, believe American society is essentially `unequal."'

Among other findings of the survey: 83 percent of respondents said the US "doesn't care what the rest of the world think," 65 percent thought the US "vulgar," 84 percent said Americans are "preoccupied with money" and 90 percent said the US was "dominated by big business."
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