To think this is an immature approach to voting?

I have said this before. My late beloved Dad used to say "If you don't vote, don't moan"

I’m an educated professional and I don’t feel sure either so I don’t blame her.

I don’t want to vote Tory due to the sleaze and racism.
I don’t want to vote Labour due to their stance on women’s rights and lack of support for Palestine (and also worried about tax hikes as a higher rate tax payer)
Libdems weren’t any better when they were in shared power with Tories (Vince Cable refusing to meet the sub-postmasters in the Post Offuce scandal was disgusting).
A vote for the greens feels like a wasted vote.

So I’ll either spoil my ballot or not vote.

@Fink
me too. If people don't engage with it all, I'd rather they didn't sway the vote ( one can
only hope they all balance out)

Theres no obligation to be clued up at all. Just place a tick in whose box you like the best. Reform always looks good.

@Applescruffel yes, or that!

I just wish we'd never been given that stupid referendum in the first place

She should spoil her ballot if she doesn't want to vote for a candidate. Let them know that nothing was suitable, rather than just fading into the background.

YABU. I wish more people had recognised that they weren’t informed enough to vote in the brexit referendum.

Some people are too tired, pissed off or apathetic about politics. If they don't want to vote, don't chastise them.

Just vote for anybody. Its not as if everyone else is clued up.

I'm blunt and I probably wouldn't tell you either.

Fair enough. I think it depends a lot on individual circumstances. I lived abroad for a while but always knew I would come back, and wasn't eligible to vote in the country I lived in, so I continued to vote in the UK.

My school did, what I now suspect was a conscious experiment based on the fact that this was mid 90s in South Africa so a difficult time where the reality that the history and "facts" we'd all been taught was often a load of bollocks.

We were studying the French Revolution. As it turned out, one class was learning about the French Revolution in a manner biased towards the Revolution, and the other class was learning about it in a manner biased towards the nobility. It was very interesting and as students we were completely shocked to discover the differences when we were brought together for study groups.

Having said that, I think it's ridiculous not to want to teach politics in case of bias. Over the course of their school career children will engage with dozens teachers of different types of background and political leanings. Plus, as others have said, teachers are trained to provide learning that is as unbiased as possible and that encourages children to come to their own conclusions or to access sources of different types.

Because he is very, very dogmatic in his views and thinks Farage would be a viable PM. In fairness he articulates himself well (both DS and Farage!) but we talked about and he doesn’t think the voting age should be lowered either.

You've hit the nail on the head in your last post about mistrust. That's definitely what I feel I'm seeing.

Education, also is very clearly a factor.

As a kid in the 1970s / 80s I was encouraged to debate politics and listened intently to what my family discussed. That is not to say that I went on to share or parrot their views. I made up my own mind. I feel that this open debate encouraged my own curiosity and desire to learn and understand more.

Likewise, at school I was treated like an adult from around 14 onwards. Teachers would delight in getting us kids to debate an engage our brains. I remember this nit just in subjects like English, but in History and Religious Studies, too. (Our RS ones were particularly heated, and are very much still relatable)

There were relatives I respected. There were teachers I respected. What I took from all of it, though was not their views, but the fact that they were happy to discuss, share and listen to opinions. It really is something I feel is imperative at such an age.

Forming opinions and having the courage of our own convictions is something we apply to all aspects of our lives as adults. It's such an important factor in education.

I have had to cover politics in PSHE lessons in the past.
I'm not sure that anyone listened or was vaguely interested though.
But it was on the curriculum to be taught.

Exactly. We are very used to not giving our views on sensitive or controversial issues. It's just part of the job.

Not a properly trained teacher.

@MrsTartanTeacosy problem with that is it could easily be biased to whatever the teacher’s or school’s political leanings are. i just don’t trust it can be taught well and taught neutrally

Well people have to trust that teachers aren't brainwashing their students the rest of the time (e.g. in RS or PSHE lessons, or history, which involves politics), so I don't see why it would be any different for teaching politics. Not that we have time in the curriculum, or the trained teachers to deliver it...

Did you actually speak to your colleague like that? I'd have told you to piss off.

Yes, it's immature and she needs to grow up.

But she won't, and no doubt she will continue to moan about things as we all do, only she will have passed up her chance to do something about it.

The problem with that is that some people are so steeped in political bias that they don't even realise they're still spekaing, thinking or debating from a place of bias.

So the answer is just not to teach it? That's completely batshit. For a start, some bias in teaching is expected and is found in every subject pretty much, particlarly any broadly in the arts/humanities section. But good schools, and good teachers can compensate for this to a large extent AND it can be mitigated by engaging with different teachers and subject matter over a longer period.

@RainbowZebraWarrior This is what I was trying to explain in my earlier post. Some people are just so bloody scared of receiving "biased" information, they'll just avoid any information at all.

Yup. Often attributed to Churchill. And AN Wilson. Whoever said it, I agree with them!

I think often people are paralysed by indecision because there is so much info so they don't even know how to go to find what they need. And there's so muchmistrust of the media that even just watching a few news broadcasts or reading a few MSM newspapers feels fraught.

To be fair, spend 10 seconds on MN even and there's half a dozen threads talking about how "terrifying" a labour government is as an idea and another half dozen with people completely shocked and horrified anyone would ever vote conservative again. etc etc.