Stephan Shakespeare looks at the politics of anti-war sentiment
Overwhelmingly, the British public thinks that Britain's military intervention in Afghanistan has not been worthwhile (by 49 per cent to 29 per cent). By an even stronger majority, they think it is right that we have now withdrawn (75 per cent to 7 per cent).
But what is interesting about this exclusive YouGov poll for Red Box lies in the detail.
Compare the people who voted Tory in 2010 (who by 46-38 think the intervention was not worthwhile) with those who support them today, who are evenly split (43 per cent "worthwhile", 42 per cent "not"). And also for the LibDems: those who supported them in 2010 are strongly inclined against the intervention (55-24), while those who still support them are evenly split (38 per cent "worthwhile" to 36 per cent "not").
So when the anti-war Tories split off to Ukip, and the anti-war Lib Demmers split off to Labour, they left a Conservative-LibDem coalition who are much more likely to consider the Afghanistan intervention worthwhile than the Labour-Ukip opposition (Labour voters are 54 to 26 "not worthwhile", Ukip the most sceptical at 66 to 19).
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