The Financial Times/Harris Poll of Adults in Five European Countries Reports on World Affairs, and on the Current British Political Landscape

ROCHESTER, N.Y. and LONDON – September 25, 2006 – Results of the latest Financial Times/Harris Poll, designed jointly by The Financial Times and Harris Interactive^®, and conducted by Harris Interactive, have been published today.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 5,174 adults (aged 16 and over) within France (1,033), Germany (1,048), Great Britain (1,019), Italy (1,054), and Spain (1,020) between 7th and 18th September 2006. Questions asked and results are as follows:

TABLE 1

JOB APPROVAL OF WORLD LEADERS

Q3000_1 "In your opinion, which of the following leaders is doing the best job?"

Base: All EU adults from five countries ages 16 and over

	Total	Great Britain	France	Italy	Spain	Germany
Unweighted Base	5174	1019	1033	1054	1020	1048
Weighted Base	5213	1019	1056	1015	1082	1042
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero	14	2	14	19	31	2
Angela Merkel	13	7	15	13	13	19
Tony Blair	7	15	6	9	3	3
Jacques Chirac	5	4	12	2	2	5
George Bush	4	4	2	10	2	3
Romano Prodi	4	1	2	13	2	2
Vladimir Putin	2	3	1	2	*	5
Jose Manuel Barroso	1	1	2	1	1	2
None of these leaders are doing a good job	49	62	46	31	47	58

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

*less than 0.5%.

TABLE 2

ROLE OF EUROPE IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS IN THE FUTURE

Q3005_1 "Would you like to see Europe playing less of a role, about the same role or more of a role in international affairs in the future?"

Base: All EU adults from five countries ages 16 and over

	Total	Great Britain	France	Italy	Spain	Germany
Unweighted Base	5174	1019	1033	1054	1020	1048
Weighted Base	5213	1019	1056	1015	1082	1042
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Less	11	27	9	11	1	8
The Same	24	23	28	15	13	40
More	53	30	56	64	73	42
Not Sure	12	20	8	10	12	9

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 3

BRITAIN’S STANDING SINCE TONY BLAIR BECAME PRIME MINISTER

Q3010_1 "Has Britain’s standing in the world declined, remained the same or improved since Tony Blair became Prime Minister?"

Base: All EU adults from five countries ages 16 and over

	Total	Great Britain	France	Italy	Spain	Germany
Unweighted Base	5174	1019	1033	1054	1020	1048
Weighted Base	5213	1019	1056	1015	1082	1042
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Declined	42	58	41	23	48	39
Remained the Same	29	16	31	31	30	34
Improved	17	14	19	32	10	12
Not Sure	12	11	10	14	11	14

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 4

WHEN SHOULD THE BRITISH PM STEP DOWN

Q3015 "Do you think Tony Blair should step down as Prime Minister before the next General Election?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLTICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	149
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
Yes	64	75	50	77
No	21	14	37	15
Not Sure	15	12	12	8

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 5

TIMEFRAME IN WHICH BLAIR SHOULD STEP DOWN

Q3020 "You said that Tony Blair should step down as Prime Minister before the next general election, when do you think he should step down?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over who think Tony Blair should step down as PM before next General Election

	Total	POLTICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	665	199	126	106
Weighted Base	652	203	140	87
	%	%	%	%
Immediately	68	86	57	55
Just before the next election	12	6	13	19
When he has served 10 years as Prime Minister	8	3	12	13
None of these	4	1	7	8
Not Sure	8	3	11	5

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 6

CANDIDATES FOR REPLACING BLAIR AS PRIME MINISTER

Q3025 "Who should replace Tony Blair as Prime Minister?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLITICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	148
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
Gordon Brown	21	13	35	19
John Reid	9	15	7	12
A member of another party	6	12	-	6
Alan Johnson	3	5	3	3
Someone who will listen to the people/ trustworthy/with integrity	1	*	*	-
Hold a general election	1	1	1	*
Someone new/currently unthought of	1	1	-	2
Anyone but Gordon Brown	1	1	-	1
Need a vote from party members/MP’s can’t decide alone	*	1	1	*
Frank Field	*	*	-	-
Alan Milburn	*	1	*	-
Margaret Beckett	*	*	*	1
Charles Clarke	*	*	*	-
Jack Straw	*	*	*	-
John McDonnell	*	-	1	-
Alex Salmond	*	-	-	-
David Milliband	*	-	*	1
John Prescott	*	-	*	-
David Blunkett	*	-	*	-
Tony Blair should stay	*	-	*	-
Anyone	1	2	*	4
Other candidate	2	1	2	1
Not sure	52	47	46	49
None	1	*	2	-
Not stated/not answered/refused	1	-	1	1

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

*less than 0.5%.

TABLE 7

IF GORDON BROWN TAKES OVER, SHOULD HE HOLD IMMEDIATE GENERAL ELECTION OR CARRY ON

Q3030 "Assuming Gordon Brown takes over as Prime Minister, should he rapidly hold a general election in order to secure his own mandate or carry on so that we can judge his performance as Prime Minister?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLITICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	148
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
Hold an immediate general election	50	71	37	48
Carry on without an immediate election	33	20	48	35
Not sure	17	9	16	17

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 8

CANDIDATE THAT IS MORE IN TOUCH WITH MODERN BRITAIN

Q3035 "Comparing David Cameron and Gordon Brown, who is more in touch with modern Britain?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLITICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	148
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
David Cameron	36	68	22	36
Gordon Brown	17	3	36	23
None of them	24	15	22	23
Not sure	23	14	20	18

TABLE 9

THE CHANGING FACE OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY

Q3040 "Thinking about the Conservative party, overall, do you think David Cameron supports everything Margaret Thatcher did when she was Prime Minister or do you think he is uncomfortable with many of her policies and wants to create a different kind of party?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLTICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	148
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
Wants to create a different kind of party	53	70	53	52
Supports everything Margaret Thatcher did	10	9	14	12
Not sure	37	22	33	37

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 10

LABOUR PARTY POLTICAL STANCE

Q3045 "If Tony Blair were to step down as Prime Minister and assuming that Gordon Brown becomes the new Prime Minister, do you think the Labour party will become more centrist, more left-wing or do you think it will remain the same?"

Base: All GB adults ages 16 and over

	Total	POLITICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED
	Total	Conservative	Labour	Liberal Democrat
Unweighted Base	1019	258	249	148
Weighted Base	1019	272	280	113
	%	%	%	%
The Labour Party will remain the same	26	20	37	27
More left wing	25	40	17	30
More centrist	14	16	16	18
Not sure	35	24	30	25

TABLE 11

2005 GENERAL ELECTION PARTY VOTE

Q3050 "In the last general election in 2005, for which party did you vote?"

Base: All GB adults ages 18 and over

	Total
Unweighted Base	992
Weighted Base	960
	%
Labour	27
Conservative	25
Liberal Democrat	18
Scottish National Party	1
Plaid Cymru	1
Other party	7
I did not vote in the last general election	20

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 12

POLITICAL PARTY NORMALLY SUPPORTED

Q 3060 "Regardless of how you voted in 2005, with which party do you normally consider yourself a part of?"

Base: All GB adults ages 18 and over

	Total
Unweighted Base	992
Weighted Base	960
	%
Labour	29
Conservative	28
Liberal Democrat	12
Scottish National Party	1
Plaid Cyrmu	*
Other party	7
Not sure	22

*less than 0.5%.

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 13

GREATEST THREAT TO GLOBAL STABILITY

Q 3065_1 "Which one, if any, of the following countries do you think is the greatest threat to global stability?"

Base: All EU adults from five countries ages 16 and over

	Total	Great Britain	France	Italy	Spain	Germany
Unweighted Base	5174	1019	1033	1054	1020	1048
Weighted Base	5213	1019	1056	1015	1082	1042
	%	%	%	%	%	%
U.S.	34	33	32	25	51	30
Iran	25	21	28	35	15	25
Iraq	17	17	12	16	17	20
China	9	8	11	15	7	7
North Korea	7	10	10	3	5	7
Russia	1	2	1	*	1	2
Other	2	3	3	1	*	2
None	5	6	3	4	5	7

*less than 0.5%.

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.

TABLE 14

GREATEST THREAT TO GLOBAL STABILITY – TREND

"Which one, if any, of the following countries do you think is the greatest threat to global stability?"

Base: All EU adults from five countries ages 16 and over

	Totals for five countries for each of four months
	June 2006	July 2006	August 2006	September 2006
Unweighted Base	5409	2623	9962	5174
Weighted Base	5440	2564	9962	5213
	%	%	%	%
U.S.	36	30	30	34
Iran	30	17	23	25
China	18	12	15	17
Iraq	*	13	14	9
North Korea	4	20	8	7
Russia	2	1	2	1
Other	2	2	2	2
None	8	5	6	5

Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding

*Less than 0.5%

Methodology

This FT/Harris Poll was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 5,174 adults (aged 16 and over) within France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain between 7th and 18th September 2006. Figures for age, sex, education, region and Internet usage were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Both unweighted and weighted bases are shown, and results/percentages represented are weighted.

Unweighted bases for the survey are: Total 5,174; France 1,033; Germany 1,048; Great Britain 1,019; Italy 1,054; and Spain 1,020.

Weighted bases for the survey are: Total 5,213; France 1,056; Germany 1,042; Great Britain 1,019; and Spain 1,082.

All surveys are subject to several sources of error. These include: sampling error (because only a sample of a population is interviewed); measurement error due to question wording and/or question order, deliberately or unintentionally inaccurate responses, nonresponse (including refusals), interviewer effects (when live interviewers are used) and weighting. With one exception (sampling error) the magnitude of the errors that result cannot be estimated. There is, therefore, no way to calculate a finite "margin of error" for any survey and the use of these words should be avoided.

With pure probability samples, with 100 percent response rates, it is possible to calculate the probability that the sampling error (but not other sources of error) is not greater than some number. With a pure probability sample of 5,174 one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-1 percentage point. For individual countries, sampling error is +/-3 percentage points. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is the 12^th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world. The company provides research-driven insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. The company has built what could conceivably be the world’s largest panel of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its United States, Europe and Asia offices, its wholly-owned subsidiary Novatris in France and through a global network of independent market research firms. The service bureau, HISB, provides its market research industry clients with mixed-mode data collection, panel development services as well as syndicated and tracking research consultation. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at www.harrisinteractive.com.

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