Obama is five times more popular than McCain in Britain

Ahead of Senator Obama's planned visit to Britain in a few weeks, a new a Guardian/ICM poll shows that 53% of Britons feel believe that Senator Obama would make the best president, with only 11% favouring McCain (36% declined to express an opinion). These results confirms numerous poll results during the primaries which showed that the proverbial 51st state have favoured Obama since early in the electoral race, with the margins in his favour increasing as Britons have learnt more about him. The strength of the result may also seem surprising given that the governing Labour Party of Gordon Brown, which is ideologically closest to the US Democrats, is extremely unpopular and the oppposition Conservative party is polling its greatest lead since the times of Margaret Thatcher. Previous polls broken down by political affiliation have also confirmed that Obama leads among Conservatives in Britain.