politics for the 99%

Published on Labour List.org, August 29, 2013 (see also our new blog: politics for the 99%).

Yesterday we asked you to have your say on how Labour MPs – and the Labour leadership – should act on Syria. 2676 of you have voted in the last 18 hours (our biggest ever response to a LabourList survey). Here are the results:  

… Labour MPs should oppose air strikes against Syria:

• Although there won’t now be a vote on military action in Syria today, LabourList readers overwhelmingly believe that Labour MPs should vote to oppose air strikes on Syria. 77% of those who voted said that the PLP should oppose strikes, compared to just 17% who were in favour. 6% wanted Labour MPs to abstain (see graph 1) … //

… Labour should wait for the UN to publish its report on recent chemical attacks before considering approving any UK involvement in military action:

• Waiting to see what the UN weapons inspectors say about the chemical weapons situation in Syria – a position Ed Miliband has advocated – is backed by 87.7% of LabourList readers. Only 12.3% of readers thought Labour should take a view before the UN report was completed (see graph 2) … //

… Intervention in Syria will lead to more civilian deaths:

• LabourList readers overwhelmingly believe that UK/US military action in Syria will lead to more, not less, civilian deaths. 73.8% believe that civilian deaths in Syria will increase as a result of intervention, compared to just 12.4% who say it will decrease civilian deaths. 13.8% of our readers said that military action would make little difference to the civilian death toll (see graph 3) … //

… (full text with 3 graphs and links to related articles).

Link: Syria debate: reaction across the nations, on Left Foot Forward, by Ed Jacobs, August 29, 2013.