Despite renewed media preoccupation with far-right organizations in Britain, following revelations of links between them and Anders Behring Breivik, perpetrator of the recent outrages in Norway, many Britons still view ‘Islamic terrorism’ as the greater problem, even though two-thirds also see the far right as a serious or minor threat.
This is one of the findings from a YouGov poll for today’s edition of The Sunday Times, in which 2,529 British adults aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 28 and 29 July 2011. The data tables are available at:
http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-29-310711.pdf
19% of respondents believed that the police and security services should devote more resources than currently to Islamic terrorism, and less to other extremists. Men (25%) were more likely to take this view than women (14%), and Conservative voters (23%) more than Liberal Democrats (14%).
Just 8% wanted resources switched from countering Islamic terrorism towards other extremists, rising to 15% among the 18-24s and 13% with Liberal Democrats. 50% contended that the police and security services were getting the balance about right, and 23% were unsure what to think.