Pacifism is a dirty word in Britain. The pre-war premier Neville Chamberlain’s undoubtedly well-meaning but naive appeasement in the face of Hitler’s Germany is rejected by all and sundry in the history books today. Ask Britons whether they’d sooner be a Chamberlain or a Churchill and the overwhelming number would reach for the latter. But how persistent the Chamberlain mindset is!
“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing.” This was Chamberlain in 1938. And in 1938 he was a popular premier. And it could almost be forgiven for being the view of the median Britain in 2025.
The nation’s attitude to war overseas is more often than not best characterised as an aversion to engagement; an unwillingness to expend excess material and wealth for foreigners in far-off places. In the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, that isolationist approach has been inverted. But the Middle East? Iran? Israel? In the shadow of Iraq? Britons baulk.
Here is the state of public opinion about possible action involving Iran.
You can see YouGov’s wording of the question mentions Israel. It provides much-needed context, but mention of Israel may toxify attitudes somewhat – voters are increasingly unfavourable towards the state because of its actions in Gaza. But it doesn’t detract from the main narrative: voters, for the most part, want to give this part of the world as wide a berth as possible.
So how did we come to this? Is it all just Iraq?
Not quite.
In the 1990s, voters were against military action in Bosnia. In the shadow of the Vietnam War – 30 years hence, mind you – Britons did not want to risk British lives for a country in which many could not even name its capital. “Don’t risk UK troops” came the Independent’s headline, accompanying an NOP poll that found popular support for aid but total aversion to anything that “would end up like Vietnam”.
On the rare occasion that Britons are willing to risk war, it appears to come only with very specific circumstances. It would be wrong to say voters were opposed to intervention in Iraq from the beginning. They weren’t. And at one point most Britons did favour intervention to topple Saddam Hussein.
Nevertheless, YouGov found there was consistent but tepid support until the middle of 2004, including in the shadow of the well-attended anti-war protests.
It’s a tale of two nations. On the streets, a country adamantly against any form of intervention. But when it came, voters in their living rooms rallied to the troops. But it was not to last. Not one survey since shows voter appreciation for US-UK intervention in Iraq.
But Iraq has not nullified British overseas ambition. In 2015 most voters backed airstrikes to combat Islamic State in Syria. In 2018 those numbers dwindled. In 2022 Britons were quick to rally in favour of Ukraine. And as late as March this year a plurality support sending peacekeepers to the country.
With the right conditions, people in the UK can be rallied to support friends in the face of adversity. But emphasis on “friends”, there.
On Israel vs Iran, few regard Israel with much favourability. Right now Israel is the least liked it’s ever been in Britain and much of western Europe. It’s unlikely this country’s public could be rallied to Israel’s aid any time soon. Without a serious deterioration in regional or global security, Britons would sooner turn their backs on this “quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing”.
[See more: Let the non-doms leave]
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