To think that UK voters should be ashamed of their apathetic ignorance?

[MrsDustyBusty]

Never heard of the DUP before today? Really, it's embarrassing.

Yet so many posters don't seem to find it that way. I'm a filthy foreigner and I literally know more about UK politics than many posters here.

AIBU to think that's really shameful?

X posts cheese

I'm shocked that the mainland doesn't appear to have covered the troubles at all. Or even the background to the peace process

I'm 30 so grew up in the 90s and I knew who the DUP are but I didn't know how backwards they are, I knew they were the unionist party. I'm shocked at the people saying they didn't know anything about NI as they were children during the troubles, that would be like saying children now don't know about Islamist terrorism. Or maybe it's because I grew up in Warrington so NI politics had a fairly major influence on my childhood

DUP have seats in Westminster, so why have they not been included in (the main) leaders debates? Plaid Cymru, UKIP, Greens all have fewer seats yet are represented, and outside of Wales we can't vote PC ... The debates and subsequent press coverage are one of the main ways that most people get political information in the run-up to an election.

BBC: Who are the DUP's 10 MPs?

A rather unedifying bunch. Creationists, climate change deniers, homophobes, family history of brokering arms deals for terrorists...

Just to put something into perspective for some, people who were born in 1999 are now voting, Of course they weren't around in the 80's.

Someone born in 1987, 30 years ago would have been 9 in 1996 When 'the troubles' ended.

Vote Count For Tory/DUP Coalition:

0

Nope. Millions upon millions of people voted for it. When you vote for a local candidates, you're also voting for their party to go into government, whether alone or as part of a coalition.

This is what anyone who voted Tory or DUP voted for, whether they intended it or not.

Is it really suprising most only have a fleeting knowledge of the DUP?

seoul

You and sunny are not wrong in the slightest

And this is an incredibly interesting thread and i think some people are learning a lot

And we need to if this fucking mess is going to continue

But, if i may say, some people are going to switch off it they keep getting 'yelled at'

You both obviously have a wealth of knowledge about this

Honestly sorry if i have stepped out of line

I agree with liv

The media were/are one sided on this issue

Wtaf the majority of people on here won't have ever had to consider a vote for the DUP and many will be too young to really remember the troubles. It would appear that being knowledgable of what I assume to you then are foreign politics doesn't stop you being an idiot

But didn't you go and google then?

Are you talking to me? Google when?

rufus

I'm not yelling. Nor do I have a wide knowledge of the subject.

What I do have is a deep sense of despair that so many people are so badly informed and yet think that their ignorance is acceptable because they think the media should spoon feed them.

I am not that interested in educating people. I'm just here to chat. I have done plenty of educating in real life and after a while you realise that outside their bubble, most people just don't give a damn. It's depressing.

So should I know every political party in each UK election and what they stand for and who is in them??? Sod off.

Is there a quiz I don't know about?

I cannot vote for the DUP but I did Google them after the election. I'd rather invest time reading info on the parties I CAN vote for than ones I will never vote for unless I move to Ireland.

so OP can insert every parties manifesto where the sun doesn't shine.

It's pretty bloody depressing that some of the most animated threads on Mn over the last 24 hours have been (a) people defending their right not to bother informing themselves about policies/candidates and voting, because apparently the suffragettes wouldn't have wanted them to feel bad about being apathetic or 'bullied' into engaging with the democratic process and (b) people defending their ignorance of the recent history of NI because it's 'irrelevant' and no one made them do it at school.

What I do have is a deep sense of despair that so many people are so badly informed and yet think that their ignorance is acceptable because they think the media should spoon feed them.

Nobody's expecting the media to "spoon feed" them. What point people are spectacularly missing is that you can't "go google" or "go find out" if you've never been aware of a party name in the first place!
Not everyone takes such an active interest in politics that they know of all the other parties that they can never be able to vote for.

Badcat

Northern Ireland is not Ireland.

And after all the threads here on this I've participated in over the last few days, the fact that you STILL don't get the distinction is mind boggling. And makes me want to weep

people defending their ignorance of the recent history of NI because it's 'irrelevant'

Who has said the history of NI was irrelevant?
If that's how you want to read into it and take it, then fine but nobody as far as I can see have said that at all.

No one cheese is asking you to google a party name you don't know. That would be impossible. You could google 'NI politics' or 'the peace process' or 'the troubles' or 'good friday agreement' since I'm sure all those terms must have popped up even in the British media.

badcat it's Northern Ireland.

sunny I'll join you in weeping.

The wilful ignorance is just astounding.

People knew something about the DUP when the late Ian Paisley was alive, but since he retired from active politics and then died, Northern Ireland politics has had less coverage. I knew about them before Thursday and their views, and do not want the government to do a deal with them.

You could google 'NI politics' or 'the peace process' or 'the troubles' or 'good friday agreement' since I'm sure all those terms must have popped up even in the British media.

But why would people, in say Scotland, have done this before voting in this election?

Did you google details of Plaid Cymru?

You could google 'NI politics' or 'the peace process' or 'the troubles' or 'good friday agreement' since I'm sure all those terms must have popped up even in the British media.

Again, not everyone has a strong enough thirst for politics to actively seek out and learn in their spare time about all that went on.
I've heard of all of those terms, but wouldn't have known all the political parties (have Sinn Fein though.)

I'm in Scotland and I knew about the DUP already. Granted I spent a lot of time in NI growing up, and my dad had stand up rows with Ian Paisley on more than one occasion, but most people I know up here know about NI politics.

But why would people, in say Scotland, have done this before voting in this election? Did you google details of Plaid Cymru?

Exactly. Bloody well said. I feel like weeping in despair at their utter ignorance if they didn't.

most people I know up here know about NI politics.

How many of the searched the above terms before this election?