Fiona Bruce shocked at how left-wing Question Time is over Trump’s war | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV
This is the moment BBC stalwart Fiona Bruce was left speechless when confronted with how left-wing and anti-war audiences were in a particular British city.
After a one-sided debate among the Kettering audience on the merits of Trump’s action in Iran, specifically “Why are we being dragged into war without a plan?” Bruce replied, “Is this a war in which Britain should be involved?” He requested a show of hands based on the question.
To his surprise, out of nearly a hundred spectators at the shoot, only about six brave souls raised their hands. Bruce was left stuttering: “Okay, I’d say a handful, not much.”
Bruce immediately turned to Shashank Joshi, an Iran expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, and asked where the conflict was heading in terms of regime change.
“The entire leadership has been wiped out, it’s in complete disarray. You saw Trump say that we identified some successors within the regime and killed them all.”
He continued, “This is one of the reasons I am concerned about the lack of thought and planning for what comes next.
“I think there is a world where the change in this regime is positive and good and something sensible comes out of it. A more democratic Iran.”
Joshi went on to express his desire for such a new regime to emerge in Iran, but outlined current problems with suitable replacements for the large number of officials killed so far in the upcoming conflict.
He expressed fear that the entire state “could fall apart” and that “there needs to be a plan to govern the country in the coming months.”
However apparent the lack of diversity of opinion may be among the Kettering Question Time audience, their general views appear to be supported by recent data.
A YouGov poll conducted on March 2 shows British people oppose Iranian attacks by 49% to 28%.
Political affiliation with the party significantly influenced the likelihood of supporting the attacks, with a majority of Reform voters at 58% and Conservatives at 49%. But Labor was opposed by 63 per cent, the Liberal Democrats by 64 per cent and the Greens by 70 per cent.
But when it comes to US use of British military bases, 58 per cent of Britons oppose it, according to a February poll, although this opposition has fallen to 50 per cent since the first attacks.
The matter of the diplomatic message was less clear; Only 21% of the public supported condemning the attacks, while 12% believed America should be praised by the UK and 45% thought the UK should neither condemn nor praise the attacks.
Britons are divided on whether regime change will occur in Iran; 37 percent believe it is likely, 32 percent say it is unlikely, and 31 percent don’t know.
The majority of people, 52 per cent, think Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has handled his relationship with Trump “poorly” and just 34 per cent think he has handled the current conflict “well”.
In terms of Britain’s military stance towards the current conflict, the largest group, 46%, believed that the UK’s involvement should be “purely defensive, with a mission to shoot down drones and defend civilian areas and UK military installations”.
