Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/08/22/one_in_three_brits_are_now_terrorists/

True fact: 1 in 4 Brits are now TERRORISTS

YouGov poll reveals terrible truth about the enemy within

By Jasper Hamill

Posted in Legal, 22nd August 2014 10:13 GMT

One in four Brits could be facing imminent arrest by the Metropolitan Police after apparently falling foul of the boys in blue's astonishing new definition of a terrorist.

As we revealed earlier this week, simply viewing a beheading video is enough for the cops to label you a card-carrying threat to public safety.

Now it turns out that some 25 per cent of the good people of Blighty could be at risk of enduring a holiday in Belmarsh, according to a survey from the respected public pollster YouGov. This was the proportion of citizens who had "seen or heard" an extract of the vid, according to the bullseye chart.

The chart revealed that some 83 per cent of Brits have at least heard of the horrifying video nasty, which shows a man with a London accent appearing to behead journalist James Foley.

This means some 17 per cent of the population must live under particularly massive rocks, because the video has been the biggest news story of the week by far.

The pollsters also found that 40 per cent of people had seen a picture of the vile video in the media, but just two per cent had watched the whole thing from start to finish.

Printing a picture of the video has proven to be controversial in itself, with the head of News Corp Australia forced to defend a decision to run a screenshot on the front page of its papers.

Happily, the people of Albion do not share the Islamic State's desire to clamp down on anything they oppose.

"Despite the chilling effectiveness of the Islamic States marketing strategies, there is no appetite for suppressing the story in the media," YouGov wrote. "Given the choice, most British people (56 per cent) would rather know about such videos than for them to be kept hidden to minimise their impact.

"That said, most people do not think that the media should be permitted to play entire execution videos on their channels. 43 per cent say that no part of the videos like these should be shown in the media, and a further 32 per cent say that they should be allowed to be shown if the killing part is removed. Only 15 per cent say there should be no censorship at all."

This stance contrasts with the attitudes of the Foley family, who urged social media users not to share the horrific footage. Celebrities and activists are using the hashtag #RespectJamesFoley and #Isismediablackout to back a call to starve the ISIS militants of publicity.

To illustrate its poll, YouGov issued this image, which resembles the 20th century charts which terrified Londoners by showing the damage a Soviet nuke would inflict upon their city.

The British-accented terrorist who decapitated Foley is thought to be one of a group of barbaric sadists nicknamed The Beatles, presumably in reference to their country of origin. Cops, spooks and the Muslim Council of Britain are all working to identify the man in the video, who gave his name only as "John". ®