Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

I do not believe last week’s Spectator poll. It’s not what people think

I do not believe last week’s Spectator poll. It’s not what people think

issue 26 August 2006

Crikey, this really will have to be another voice. Has The Spectator taken leave of its senses? I could hardly bring myself to take last week’s edition out of its see-through plastic wrapping when, pictured on the cover, I saw a huge cartoon bulldog being walked on by a Muslim terrorist, and beside it four bald statements in big blue capital letters with a scarlet tick placed against each:

THIS IS WAR
WE ARE LOSING
WE NEED TOUGHER POLICIES
WE WILL BE ATTACKED


and, underneath, ‘The view of the British: exclusive poll’.

To my certain knowledge this is not the view of the British. I understand my countrymen well enough, and they are neither as hawkish as some at The Spectator would like them to be, nor as dovish as I could wish. So far as the view of the British on terrorism can be summarised at all (I thought) that view is doubtful, nervous, and a little sceptical of the certainties and enthusiasms of either side.

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