about this radio contestant not knowing who the PM is?

[PurpleStorm]

I was flipping through radio stations in the car, and there was a phone-in competition on one of the commercial stations. One of the ones where contestants have to get as many correct answers as possible within a short time limit.

The questions seemed fairly simple, and the contestant was doing well. And then she got this question: "Who is the prime minister?"

She was stumped. Didn't have a clue. I was thinking that she'd just had some sort of temporary mental block under pressure, but no. When the presenter told her that the answer was David Cameron, she said that she hadn't heard of him.

I was kind of shocked by this. The prime minister is the most high profile politician in the country. He's mentioned in the news most days, as far as I can see. I know that not everyone's interested in politics, and I wouldn't expect most people to be able to name all of the politicians in the cabinet - but I had assumed that everyone would have at least have an idea who the prime minister was. Especially when Cameron's been PM for about 3 years.

AIBU to expect people to be aware of who the prime minister of their country is?

Not unreasonable but I'm really not surprised.

YANBU but some people are just thick as two short planks. Horrendous to think that someone like that could a) vote and b) sit on a jury....

YANBU.

But then I had a conversation the other day with a friend who couldn't understand that even if Nick Clegg stood down or lost his seat, or even if the coalition fell apart, there would still be a deputy PM.

I wish I'd never heard his name.

YANBU

This is the problem with the electoral system though. People can't be bothered to educate themselves, and then moan about 'the government'. Thick.

YANBU to think we all should know who the prime minister is but I'm not surprised by what you've said.

I know people who don't watch or read the news, not on tv, not on the radio, in the papers or online. They don't use sites like mn where these things would come up and they don't discuss 'current affairs'. One of my ILS fall into this category. If I mentioned Cameron to them, I think they might have took some time and said "I think I've heard of him" but I'd fully believe they hadn't.

Its just not on some peoples radar.

I just don't quite get how someone can manage to avoid news and current affairs to that extent. Although it's evidently possible!

It's scarily possible. I have friends who are smart and not thick by any stretch of the imagination but take so little interest in current affairs they know very little although I'm sure they could name the pm!

A newspaper once ran one of those 'would you pass the citizenship test?' features and my friend read it out to her then 17yo DD. "What are the colours of the United Kingdom flag?" was the question... blank looks from the DD.

How depressing is that? I bet she would've known the Kardashian's names. How can somebody go through education and still be so clueless?

She knew who George Clooney was. That was the answer to one of the other questions.

I've just remembered why I hate commercial radio.

That really is depressing. How on earth do you miss something like that?

Far worse than not knowing who Hitler was IMHO and many don't now I fear as incredible as it may sound. I challenged someone who didn't know when it came up in conversation and they said they didn't take history at school as an option so how would they know? That told me.

When David Cameron was reasonably newly the leader of the opposition my sister failed to recognise a picture of him, and when I told her who he was, she said she had never heard of him.

She explained: "Oh well we don't get a paper and I don't really watch the news."

I said she shouldn't be allowed to vote.

(I think she knows who he is now he is PM though . . . )