[livius]

Does the British public care at all? I asked this on an earlier thread, but nobody has responded - it seems to me that there is very little outcry over this in Britain. Maybe one of the reasons Blair has been proceeding in such an apparently sluggish way is simply that there's no popular support for doing anything else.

Not that that's going to matter in the long run. But I am puzzled that it doesn't seem (from here, at any rate), that the British public is particularly upset about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[kopite]

"""Does the British public care at all? I asked this on an earlier thread, but nobody has responded - it seems to me that there is very little outcry over this in Britain. Maybe one of the reasons Blair has been proceeding in such an apparently sluggish way is simply that there's no popular support for doing anything else.

Not that that's going to matter in the long run. But I am puzzled that it doesn't seem (from here, at any rate), that the British public is particularly upset about this. Correct me if I'm wrong."""

You are wong, and I'm correcting you. Right now I am listening to a British phone in radio station where this is the top subject. Most Brits on the show are angry and want something done.

[familyop]

I suspect that you're correct. ...much cynicism and negativity over there. I also suspect that Iran is running a propaganda ruse regarding Israel and is planning to go for a country in western Europe after building nukes.

[justa-hairyape]

But I am puzzled that it doesn't seem (from here, at any rate), that the British public is particularly upset about this. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It is hard to judge the British public through the mainstream media over there. Just as it is hard to judge the American public here through the mainstream media. The boob tube is after all, just for boobs. Now that there is proof that these people were kidnapped at gunpoint, perhaps the underlying sentiment will bubble up through the London fog.

It is ironic however that if an armed gang had kidnapped a group of policeman on British soil, the public would have been in an uproar by now, no doubt.

[anoldafvet]

"Blair has been proceeding in such an apparently sluggish way "

Yes, apparently stamping your foot and threatening to hold your breath till you turn blue is not having the desired effect. He may have to tell them he is really, really, really, really angry. /sarc off

[britemp]

'Correct me if I'm wrong.'

You're wrong.

The British public are very angry about this, but prefer to follow the advice of Winston Churchill on matters of this nature, I quote:

"Jaw, jaw, not war, war."

In this situation we, like our US cousins always explore diplomatic solutions before military ones, especially when we are already thinly spread, militarily, because of Iraq and Afghanistan. When a third front is opened in Iran, it will be because the US and Britain choose to, not because Iran provokes them into it.

[vimto]

Yes there is outrage in the UK. But not much.

Blair is making this information public so that if and when we go in..... he will have a watertight case in the eyes of the international community.

Well that's the way we Brits traditionally do things diplomacy, reason and then a strike if no response.

But I believe that behind the headlines Iran has been told - touch one hair of their heads and you will pay. At least I hope so.

By and large many Brits have become too European becoming hard-line appeasers. We just want comfort and we wish the big bad world would go away or become civilized (like us). Of course it is a delusional state. But we don't seem to care much.

How would Thatcher have handled this....Oh for new Thatcher or Churchill in these troubled Islamic times.

Warm regards.

[AliVeritas]

There's a lot of outcry in Britain, like the media here... you will not hear it.