The Telegraph has details of the first opinion poll of the British since the bombs. Surprise, surprise, they are determined and angry. Tony Blair’s satisfaction rating is positive for the first time in five years, giving him a 17 point bounce. The number thinking that the government is doing a fair or good job at preventing terror attacks has actually increased from 55 to 68 percent. So much for the people who said this would turn the British against the government. However, the ID card lobby has not seen its case boosted much – support for ID cards has only increased by 5 percent to 50 percent, and 56 percent recognize that ID cards would not have helped prevent the bombings. That makes David Davis’ campaign to stop ID cards much easier.

As for public attitude towards the terrorists, there has been a “no messing around” response, much as I thought would happen. Fully 70 percent believe that the civil liberties of suspected terrorists should be curtailed. Moreover, there are signs that the British people are convinced they know where the real threat to their saftey lies: 60 percent want the security services to concentrate on Muslims. In fact, the number believing that Islam itself, not just Islamic fundamentalism, is a threat to Western civilization has gone up from 32 percent (about the level of support for the Conservative party, interestingly) to 46 percent.

Although the figures aren’t available online as far as I can see, polling expert Anthony King also says, “The bombings have failed…to undermine support for the British presence in Iraq. The proportion wanting British troops brought home quickly has fallen and the proportion who now want Britain to retain its close ties with the US has risen.” So it looks like the bombers have failed in their every aim except in the killing of innocents.

A good place to follow the polls as they come out over the next few days is Anthony Wells’ UK Polling Report blog. I suspect, as the truth about the King’s Cross bomb becomes known (it is suspected there are many more bodies down there but the tunnel is in too dangerous a state to investigate yet), we might see an even angrier British public.