Marjorie Thompson - Extent of Public Support For CND Policies

Extent of Public Support For CND Policies

As CND did not have a national membership until 1966, the strength of public support in its early days can be estimated only from the numbers of those attending demonstrations or expressing approval in opinion polls. Between 1955 and 1962, between 19% to 33% of people in Britain expressed disapproval of the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

Public support for unilateralism in September 1982 was 31%, falling to 21% in January 1983, but it is hard to say whether this decline was a result of the contemporary propaganda campaign against CND or not. Support for CND fell after the end of the Cold war. It had not succeeded in converting the British public to unilateralism and even after the collapse of the Soviet Union British nuclear weapons still have majority support. "Unilateral disarmament has always been opposed by a majority of the British public, with the level of support for unilateralism remaining steady at around one in four of the population."

In 2005, MORI conducted an opinion poll which asked about attitudes to Trident and the use of nuclear weapons. When asked whether the UK should replace Trident, without being told of the cost, 44% of respondents said "Yes" and 46% said "No". When asked the same question and told of the cost, 33% said "Yes" and 54% said "No".

When asked "Would you approve or disapprove of the UK using nuclear weapons against a country we are at war with?"

• 9% would approve if that country does not have nuclear weapons, and 84% would disapprove.
• 16% would approve if that country has nuclear weapons but has never used them, and 72% would disapprove,
• 53% would approve if that country uses nuclear weapons against the UK, and 37% would disapprove.

CND's policy of opposing American nuclear bases is said to be in tune with public opinion.