YOU can’t convince two-thirds of the population that they are “extremists.” But remarkably, the British political class is going to try.

Pollsters have been monitoring public attitudes to the Gaza conflict since the appalling events of ­October 7 and the thunderclap of violence which followed. The simple reality is that the ­overwhelming majority of British people back a ceasefire in Gaza, and have done so for months. For some time, significant parts of ­British ­politics have been pretending this is not true.

They have focused – not on ­manufacturing consent for the UK ­Government’s ­foreign policy – but in trying to represent the widespread dissent facing it as illegitimate, ­radicalised, mobbish and extreme.

Despite all the industry being put into flipping reality in its head, despite the work politics and parts of the press have been ­doing to invert this reality – the ­basic facts of public opinion are stubborn and ­unchanging.

According to YouGov’s latest findings, two-thirds of ­British people believe Israel should stop and call a ceasefire. 66% think Israel should now be prepared to enter into negotiations with Hamas. Just 13% of British people ­believe Israel should continue to pursue its military campaign in Gaza.

Two-thirds of Britons also support a two-state solution, where ­independent ­Palestinian and Israeli states exist ­alongside each other. No other option – including the forced displacement of any population from the region – attracts any significant support, despite the prevalence of this ­talking point.

YouGov’s data also suggests public ­sympathy for Israel’s actions in this ­conflict has fallen since November, as legitimate self-defence against terror evolved, in the ­language of the recent SNP ­motion, into “the collective punishment of the ­Palestinian people” for the actions of ­Hamas on October 7.

You may or may not support any of these positions – but they’re mainstream, not ­extreme, convictions about what’s ­happening.

They also aren’t new. By........

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