Britons split over UK air raids in Syria: Poll

A new poll suggests people in the United Kingdom are divided over the government of Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to carry out a bombing campaign against Daesh militants in Syria.

On Wednesday, as a vote in the Commons is expected to give David Cameron a substantial majority to start bombarding Daesh positions inside Syria, a survey conducted by the online polling organization, voteScotland-England, has shown that  voters in Scotland and the rest of the UK hold divergent views on the need for further military action in Syria.

According to the poll results, a clear majority of Scots, that is, 72 percent, are against airstrikes that are possible to intensify the hatred of Daesh towards the UK. Most of those polled in Scotland said they were against the air raids as they could worsen the current situation by intensifying Daesh terrorists’ hatred towards Britons.

This is while about 54 percent of voters in England are in favor of the air attacks in Syria, saying that the campaign, which would be an extension of the UK's air assaults against Daesh in Iraq, would be aimed at weakening the militants operating in Syria and neighboring Iraq, as well as in other countries.

“Our polling shows that while the PM has good support in England, that is not the case in Scotland. The UK is divided as the numbers show,” the polling organization’s founder, Martyn Greene, said.

Wednesday's parliamentary debate will see a motion put to the vote aimed at paving the way for the start of the campaign.

The Scottish National Party’s 56 lawmakers are expected to vote against the government’s 12-point motion, which has already been approved by Cameron’s cabinet.

Scotland’s sole Labour MP, shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray, and the majority of Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) are all against the motion.

Meanwhile, British opposition Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, claims that about 75 percent of his party’s grassroots members support his opposition to the extension of the UK airstrike campaign.

Instead, Corbyn said efforts should focus on a political solution to the crisis in Syria, which has left more than 250,000 people dead and millions displaced since 2011.

The British premier claims that the bombing of militants in Syria would prevent attacks by Daesh terrorists such as those on November 13 in the French capital, Paris, which left 130 people dead.

On Tuesday, thousands of anti-war protesters took to the streets in London to voice their opposition to the plans by the British government.

Some 4,000 demonstrators marched from the Houses of Parliament in Westminster to the headquarters of the ruling Conservative party and main opposition Labour party, on the eve of a parliamentary vote on whether the UK should extend its airstrikes from Iraq into Syria.

"We're here to say one simple thing, don't bomb Syria,” said Lindsey German, a founding member of the Stop the War Coalition protest movement, while addressing the marchers, who added, "Don't go and bomb a country where we make the war even worse."

Since August 2014, the United States and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they claim to be Daesh positions in Iraq. Some members of the so-called US-led coalition have been also pounding purported Daesh positions inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate since September last year.

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