http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7324337.stm

The BBC has released its annual survey on which countries are viewed as having a ‘mainly positive’ or ‘mainly negative’ influence on the world. The article is focused on how America has improved in peoples perceptions from the previous survey, but from all the results here are some other ones of interest:

• Great Britain has second highest positive view of Russia (after Russia) in Europe, albeit at 45%, this compares to the next highest of Germany at 24%.

• 42% (up from 18%) of the US feel GB has had a mainly negative influence on the world this puts them 4th highest overall after Turkey (48%), Egypt (46%) and Lebanon. (44%)

• The lowest mainly negative view of GB is Japan at 6% and the highest mainly positive view of GB is Kenya at 85%.

• Overall positive views on GB have grown from 46% to 50%, with negative views falling from 29% to 24%.  The positive view has mainly gone up in Muslim countries (UAE now 54% positive from 31%, Turkey 36% from 21%, Lebanon 39% from 32%) along with S.Korea, China, France, Italy and Kenya.

• Those countries who have a lower positive views of GB are the US (45%, down from 67%), Russia (43% from 55%), Portugal (56% from 65%) and India (22% from 37%).

• Italy has a 70% view of the UK as having a mainly positive influence on the world. This is the highest in Europe.

• Overall positive views on the European Union have risen from last year (52%, up from 48%) with negative views going from 22% to 21%.

• All EU countries have robust majorities declaring it a positive influence.

• GB has a 51% mainly positive rating of French influence in the world, which is second lowest in Europe only to Germany at 49% (down from 60%). GB has the largest negative view of French influence in the world of the European nations at 31%. (compared to Germany in second at 26%)

Any thoughts?

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for a fuller picture here is the direct link to results:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_globalview.pdf