New poll on Afghan War and the election

The following is from the Independent and is about a new ComRes poll showing views of the electorate on the war. It demonstrates again that Green Party policy is correct and also that as a candidate I am justified in flagging up the war in view of the silence of the other parties on the issue and the impact on the country. We will see how this will be handled in the next leaders debate tomorrow about foreign policy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/afghan-war-is-unwinnable-and-we-should-not-be-there-say-voters-1949621.html

High levels of voter dissatisfaction with Britain's eight-year military involvement in Afghanistan were uncovered by the survey.


According to ComRes, 72 per cent believe the war, which has so far cost more than 280 British lives, is "unwinnable", with just 19 per cent taking the opposite view.

More than half (53 per cent) say they "don't really understand why Britain is still in Afghanistan", with 42 per cent disagreeing. A gap between the sexes emerged, with 60 per cent of women but 47 per cent of men saying they did not understand Britain's presence in Afghanistan. A sense that the issue has so far been avoided in the election campaign emerged, with 70 per cent saying they believed the main parties did not offer them "any real choice of policies" on Afghanistan. Just 19 per cent said they believed they were offered a choice.

The war is bound to be a key theme of tomorrow's second televised debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg as it will mainly focus on international affairs. While the Tories have been fiercely critical of the equipment supplied to UK forces in Afghanistan, they support the operation as strongly as Labour.

Although Mr Clegg has urged a rethink of military tactics, the Liberal Democrats describe themselves as "critical supporters" of the campaign.