British Opinion Research Articles

The Dreyfus Affair—another year, another centenary. British opinion and the Rennes verdict, September 1899

The Dreyfus Affair—another year, another centenary. British opinion and the Rennes verdict, September 1899

Unresolved Ambiguity: Quebec After the Election of 1998

PSEPHOLOGY – THE ART OF STUDYING ELECTIONS – HAS COME TEN thousand leagues since R.B.McCallum applied the term in the 1940s to his pioneering analyses of British elections and political opinion in the first of the now classic Nuffield studies. Putting the electors under a magnifying glass has ranged from examining them by means of formal logic and sophisticated mathematical procedures, to anecdotal accounts of the process through which democracies choose their governments. In this article, I seek to situate a particular contest – the 1998 Quebec provincial election – into the general political landscape.The result of the balloting was that the reigning sovereigntist Parti Québécois (PQ) was returned to power under a first-past-thepost system with a resounding majority of seats but with fewer votes than the opposition federalist Parti Liberal du Québec (PLQ). As if that paradox were not enough, polls demonstrated without a smidgen of doubt that although the voters returned a government committed to holding a referendum on the sovereignty of Quebec, a significant majority did not wish a referendum to be held within the foreseeable future. Majorities of both francophone and anglophone electors opposed a direct consultation on Quebec's status in the federation.

Imperial benevolence: making British authority in the Pacific Islands

This analysis of British imperialism in the south Pacific explores the impulses behind British calls for the protection and improvement of islanders. From kingmaking projects in Hawai'i, Tonga and Fiji to the campaign against the labour trade in the western Pacific, the author examines the subjective cultural roots permeating Britons' attitudes toward Pacific islanders. By teasing out the connections between those attitudes and the British humanitarian and antislavery movements, this text reminds the reader that 19th-century Britain was engaged in a global canpaign for Christianization and civilization. Using official and unofficial records, this text shows how British Naval officers and their humanitarian supporters responded to a variety of Pacific encounters, developing their own interpretations of culture and contact in the islands. The book aims to overturn traditional historical treatments of Britain's naval operations in the islands, particularly on the issue of gunboat diplomacy. It reveals how deeply divided British opinion was about the use of force against islanders and the unpredictable responses of the islanders.

Boys and sexual abuse: an English opinion.

Boys and sexual abuse: an English opinion.

‘Handsome physiognomy and blameless physique’: indigenous colonial sporting tours and British racial consciousness, 1868 and 1888

It is seldom recalled in popular accounts, and less so with any degree of accuracy, that the first Australian and New Zealand sporting teams to visit Britain were both indigenous: the 1868 Aboriginal cricket team and the 1888-89 New Zealand Native1 rugby team. Even the most dedicated chroniclers of their respective sports have rendered these tours more in the manner of vaudeville than serious endeavour. What has generally been preserved is a catalogue of the sensational and disreputable. Despite John Mulvaney's Cricket Walkabout, first published in 1967, the Aboriginal cricketers were entirely ignored in the context of the 1977 Centenary Test celebrations.2 The Native team suffered a similar fate during the centenary of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union in 1992. The pioneering position of both teams obviously entitles them to much wider consideration. Yet they are equally important for the light they cast on Victorian attitudes to race. While much has been written of race relations and policy on the frontiers of Empire, comparatively less has been said regarding those Englishmen 'securely at home' whose opinions were not shaped by imperial experience.3 Given that the itineraries of the two tours presented more opportunities for sustained public and press attention than did those of most other nonwhite individuals and groups visiting Britain during the nineteenth century, it follows that they may reasonably be used as a barometer of British opinion. Moreover, along with two Parsee cricket tours of Britain in 1886 and 1888, the Aboriginal and Native teams were the only groups to test their qualities against British stock under the direct and quantifiable conditions imposed by an enclosed sporting arena.4 Other visits to Britain were mostly of a more abstract cultural or academic interest. The fact that these visitors were sportsmen was to have a crucial bearing on their reception. In the end, comparatively little attention was paid to the racial aspect of either tour - leaving one to conclude that the social and moral values ascribed to Aboriginal cricket and Maori rugby were to some

‘An idyllic and unruffled atmosphere of complete Anglo‐German misunderstanding’: Aspects of the Operations of the Dienststelle Ribbentrop in Great Britain, 1934–1938

In the mid‐ and later 1930s Hitler attached particular importance to the cultivation of good relations with Britain, and Germany attempted to influence British opinion by the use of direct and indirect propaganda. One of the most important agencies for the dissemination of propaganda and the promotion of Anglo‐German friendship was the Dienststelle Ribbentrop. This organization cultivated relations between British and German war veteran associations and with aristocratic Britons such as Lord Lothian and Lord Mount Temple, ‘fellow‐travellers of the right’ who seemed well disposed to the Nazi regime. Ribbentrop also established German–British friendship societies. For a time, these efforts appeared to convince the German government that good relations could be established with Britain; but the Foreign Office remained suspicious of German intentions and the Nazis miscalculated the degree of approval in Britain for their policies. By 1938–9 they had finally despaired of the possibility of an Anglo‐German understanding which would buttress Hitler’s policies in Germany and in Europe.

British and Irish public opinion towards the Northern Ireland problem∗

Abstract Four publics are involved in any resolution of the Northern Ireland problem: the Northern Ireland public itself, divided between Protestant and Catholic; and the British and Irish publics. This paper examines trends in public opinion towards Northern Ireland in Britain and Ireland since the current conflict began in 1968. The results show that British opinion has been both stable and negative over the period, favouring any solution other than the status quo. When the survey question concerns British troop withdrawal, a majority favour it; when the question concerns constitutional options, a majority will favour anything other than continued union with Britain. Irish public opinion is more complex and correspondingly less stable. While unity remains an aspiration for the majority, support for it has declined to its lowest point at any time since the start of the troubles. At the same time, Irish opinion has displayed a dramatic shift in support for changes in Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. ...

British political culture and the dismemberment of states: Britain and the first partition of Poland 1762–1772

Summary Discussions of British policy towards Poland and the Polish question in the years before the first Partition have recently been provided by Michael Roberts and by Hamish Scott. They have given both a narrative and an analysis of British diplomacy and foreign policy in the decade after the end of the Seven Years’ War. It is the purpose of this paper to suggest the resonance which British policy (and the lack of it) and opinion on Poland had for contemporary understanding of the British political system and political culture itself.1 The implications for Britain of the first Partition of Poland were ominous and unsettling for the British polity, and would challenge both diplomatic practice and political prejudices and commonplaces.

The Red Army and the Munich Crisis

Although enthusiastically received by majority British and French opinion at the time, the Munich Agreement of 1938 soon came to be viewed as a shameful act of capitulation. At the time, Conservative dissidents headed by Churchill, as well as many Opposition figures, particularly criticized the failure of the Chamberlain and Daladier governments to make common cause with, or even sound out, the Soviet Union, which had treaties of alliance with both France and Czechoslovakia. Defence of this inaction, as far as the British are concerned, has hinged on Chamberlain's deep-rooted distrust of communism and on military advice, specifically the opinion of the Chiefs of Staff, that the Red Army had been so harmed by Stalin's purge of the military leadership as to be incapable of effective action. This opinion they continued to hold until some time after the German invasion of 1941, apparently taking the poor Soviet performance in the Winter War against Finland in 1939-40 as more definitive than the much better record against the Japanese army before Munich in the summer of 1938 and after it in Mongolia in 1939. Up to now, assessment of whether Soviet military action could have made any difference to the outcome of the crisis has depended entirely upon subjective judgments about the effect of the purges. However, even granting that they were gravely detrimental to the Red Army's effectiveness, the crisis, if it had led to war, would have required Germany to face not the Red Army alone but the armies of France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, that is a war on three fronts, which it would probably have had to fight without allies. Conduct of such a war, difficult enough in itself, would have been further complicated by Anglo-French naval blockade. Even with poorly-led Soviet forces, the odds against Germany would have been

‘Boche, Bolshie and the Jewish Bogey’: The Russian revolution and press antisemitism in Britain 1917–21

In 1917 the ‘Jewish‐Bolshevik’ threat replaced the Jewish‐German’ menace in British popular opinion. The Morning Post and The Times were in the forefront of the campaign to promote White Russia and attribute the Bolsheviks' rise to power as part of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. The press's antisemitic agitation was, however, limited in scope and, with the exposure of The Protocols in 1921, was relegated to extreme‐right publications.

The Last War Aim: British Opinion and the Decision for Czechoslovak Independence, 1914–1919

The Last War Aim: British Opinion and the Decision for Czechoslovak Independence, 1914–1919

Vine Volume 14 Issue 5 1984

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is produced and substantially written by the Editor who is based at the Polytechnic of Central London and supported by a grant from the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1985 to VINE is: £24 for UK subscribers, £27 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £25 for UK and £17 for overseas. VINE is available on either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Vine Volume 14 Issue 3 1984

Vine is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is produced and substantially written by the Editor who is based at the Polytechnic of Central London and supported by a grant from the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available on either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Vine Volume 14 Issue 2 1984

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. Ittis edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based, from June 1st 1984, at the Polytechnic of Central London and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for the articles rests with the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available in either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Vine Volume 14 Issue 1 1984

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for the articles rests with the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available in either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

Vine Volume 13 Issue 5 1983

VINE is produced at least four times a year with the object of providing up‐to‐date news of work being done in the automation of library housekeeping processes, principally in the UK. It is edited and substantially written by the Information Officer for Library Automation based in Southampton University Library and supported by a grant from the British Library Research and Development Department. Copyright for the articles rests with the British Library Board and opinions expressed in VINE do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the British Library. The subscription for 1984 to VINE is: £23 for UK subscribers, £26 to overseas subscribers (including airmail delivery). Second and subsequent copies to the same address are charged at £14 for UK and £16 for overseas. VINE is available in either paper or microfiche copy and all back issues are available on microfiche.

English Planning and Environmental Law and Administration: The 1970s

Abstract This article describes and comments on the most important English planning and environmental law and administration events from 1970 through 1979. Some analogies are drawn to the American experience. Events were identified by surveying the views of twenty leading English opinion holders. The topics covered include the Community Land Act 1975 and the related development land tax; public participation; structure plans; local government reorganization; development control; inner areas; water, pollution; judge-made law; and exactions.

Experts and Optimists: British Opinion and the American Revolution

Experts and Optimists: British Opinion and the American Revolution

The Origins and Development of the Witu Sultanate

In October 1890 British forces landed at Kipini near the mouth of the Tana River on the east coast of Africa and proceeded the sixteen miles inland to Witu where they made every effort to utterly wreck and destroy the town and its defenses. All of the stone buildings, including the palace of the Sultan, were blown up, their inhabitants fleeing into the forest.2 Although it took three more years for the British to complete their roundup of the Witu Sultan and his allies, the destruction of the town marked the downfall of a political entity which had conformed neither to the wishes of the sultanate of Zanzibar nor to those of its successor, the British protectorate. The Witu state is a vivid example of a widespread resistance to Arab and British domination on the northern East African coast during the nineteenth century. The sultanate of Witu, because of its reputation in its last years as a thorn in the flesh of the British, achieved notoriety in Imperial British East Africa Company and Foreign Office annals. Company and protectorate officials viewed the Witu people as a band of outlaws whose only goal was to upset the economic and political life of the northern Swahili coast. The treaty enacted between Witu and a German group in 1885 only reinforced British opinions. But it is to the observations of the Germans who visited Witu, as well as to other records which precede those of the British intrusion, and to oral sources that we must turn for a more balanced assessment of Witu.

The Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment in English Reactions to the American Civil War

From 1861 to 1865, English politicians and journalists watched with passionate interest as the United States seemed to tear itself apart over the question of slavery. During these years, English public men, politicians and writers of all qualities and degrees, gave extensive airing to their views both of slavery and of American democracy. This extensive commentary on the American conflict, and the subsequent revival of interest in parliamentary reform, have made the divisions in English opinion on the war a useful testing ground of mid-Victorian social and political attitudes. Early studies, written from the perspective of the northern victory, the abolition of slavery, and the martyrdom of Lincoln, found it difficult to comprehend the extent of pro-confederate sympathy in England. On the slavery question, the mid-Victorians seemed to have lost the abolitionist enthusiasm of their evangelical forebears in the Clapham Sect. In order to fathom this failure of English judgement, historians attempted to show that the more articulate minority, the upper echelons of mid-Victorian society, sided with an aristocratic, slave-owning south, while the less articulate majority, middle-class radicals and the working class, sided with a democratic, abolitionist north.