The thing that surprised me was that Britons had a vastly more positive view of free trade and globalisation, which conflicted with my impression that America is a far more libertarian place. In Britain, there's no-one like Ron Paul, very few people describe themselves as remotely libertarian, and the National Health Service is regarded as the 'national religion'. Free trade being an exception to the usual view of the nations' attitudes is interesting.

I expected the divergences on belief in God, Hell and the sinfulness of premarital sex, but the magnitude of the disparity is still amazing.

What's the deal with 35% of Americans regarding university professors as untrustworthy?

Yeah, the free-trade thing didn't surprise me overly much, matthewr, because of the USA's increasingly more isolationist bent of late.

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What's the deal with 35% of Americans regarding university professors as untrustworthy?

Evil lib'ruls, the whole lot of them. They do things like research and debate and they use big words to make normal folks feel dumb and sometimes they even CHANGE THEIR MINDS! Unhinged and heathen, they are.

This one made me chuckle:

How satisfied are you with the job being done by each of the following?

(Great Britain poll)
US President George W Bush
Don't Know: 13%

(United States poll)
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Don't Know: 54%

What's the deal with 35% of Americans regarding university professors as untrustworthy?

I don't know that 'untrustworthy' is exactly the word, but I have a theory about the hostility toward academics in American society (and I admit that it may be a bit half-baked, but so's just about everything i say so what the hell). For a very long time, the only educated people in America, beyond basic literacy, were the wealthy and powerful, the people who had the power to screw you over and who often did. Even now, when higher education is available to a much larger slice of the populace, that ancestral distrust has filtered down in a kind of diffuse way (mainly cultural, but I think it happens in individual interactions, too) to this very day.

For a very long time, the only educated people in America, beyond basic literacy, were the wealthy and powerful, the people who had the power to screw you over and who often did.

You were right, that does sound half-baked.

I've always said, that the 'left' party of the US wouldn't know a real pinko if they were storming the Winter Palace.

Perhaps this could be used to harmonise that American oddness of the red/blue split with the rest of the world? ie: if the US Dems are blue, we just need to relabel the US Repubs as, oh, UVC or something, and then everyone's political spectrums will make sense.

Of course, 'New Labor' would have to adopt some sort of bluish purple too.

Sorry, 'New Labour'. I forgot it's just the Aussie 'Labor' party that can't spell.