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?

Trimble wasn't really that reasonable.

I don't know if any of you have ever heard Pat Hume interviewed recently? She is amazing her love for John shines through. And it's so sad he has ended up as he has.

"I consider it everyone's duty to inform themselves about the parties they intend to vote for, but that's it."

The problem is that the DUP are in many ways the northern Irish branch of the Conservative party, I mean obviously they're not quite that, but they are linked in a way that other parties aren't.

David Trimble marching through my hometown with the Orange Walk and singing the sash is a vivid memory. If he's to be considered reasonable then god fucking help us.

"The problem is that the DUP are in many ways the northern Irish branch of the Conservative party, I mean obviously they're not quite that, but they are linked in a way that other parties aren't."

Isn't the SDLP a sister party to Labour. And isn't Alliance something to do with the Lib Dems (or am I just confused on that one?).
SNP and PC are obviously sister parties and have strong links with the Greens of England and Wales with whom they are in the same group in the European Parliament.

This thread is eye-opening, and not in a good way. The OP doesn't say it's embarrassing that people don't know the ins and outs of Northern Irish politics. It says it'should embarrassing that people voting in a UK election have never heard of the DUP. And certainly for people of my age (37) and above, I think that's true. In fact I think everyone voting should at least have heard of them, given that in the last 6 months they've been all over the news with the cash for ash scandal and the breakdown in the power sharing agreement, followed by Martin McGuinness's death and lots of retrospectives about his relationship with Ian Paisley. But if you're my age - the GFA was a massive, massive deal and I am genuinely surprised that the actors didn't cross people's radar.

Tuna and others from Northern Ireland, some of the things you've read on this thread about the irrelevance of your politics must have been really quite depressing. I am no expert but please know that there are plenty of people out there who are interested in what has happened and in my case greatly admiring of the continued success in maintaining the peace.

"Isn't the SDLP a sister party to Labour. And isn't Alliance something to do with the Lib Dems (or am I just confused on that one?).
SNP and PC are obviously sister parties and have strong links with the Greens of England and Wales with whom they are in the same group in the European Parliament."

I was discounting SDLP right enough, but labour is right there in the party name...so... I'd kind of lumped them in as labour tbh, lol.

Alliance are separate as far as I know, they've been in opposition to the NI Lib dems, I could be wrong, as I said a while back, I only have a pretty basic knowledge of NI politics.

The others are linked, but not in anyway like the DUP and the conservatives.

"n fact I think everyone voting should at least have heard of them, given that in the last 6 months they've been all over the news with the cash for ash scandal and the breakdown in the power sharing agreement"

Yes, but you can know about this story and it being about one of the unionist parties of Northern Ireland without knowing the name of the party or much detail about that party.

I've just looked up Alliance on Wikipedia and it says 'organsational links with the Liberal Democrats in Great Britain'.
I wasn't aware there was an NI Liberal Democrat Party, but then I'm quite interested in politics but only found out recently that the SDP still exists - I thought it had merged with the Lib Dems ages ago, but apparently a splinter party is still continuing.

Gwen, the OP didn't refer to knowing detail about the party. And I would have expected the name to penetrate because of all the stuff about Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness shortly afterwards. Or at least to provoke recognition when they come up as a potential prop to the Tories.

I am sure lots of the people on this thread who didn't know who they were know a lot more than me about other things, so I'm not claiming any intellectual superiority. I suspect that even if people listen to the news, they switch off (mentally rather than physically) from parts that don't interest them. I'm just surprised that there are people on here saying that they read all the newspapers and still didn't know who they were. I suppose that one good thing that might come out of the sorry mess we're now in is that people (me included!) will learn a bit more about Northern Irish politics.

"I've just looked up Alliance on Wikipedia and it says 'organsational links with the Liberal Democrats in Great Britain'"

Ah I never looked, I just for some reason remembered Naomi Long sitting in opposition to the NI lib dems.

I knew they were a liberal party, so hadn't ever looked to see if it was a stronger link than that.

That's the thing, I really don't expect people to have a really in depth load of research, I'm just pretty shocked that people don't have a rough idea of which parties are in parliament, what their main positions are and who they vote with... because that does affect what happens in the whole of the UK.

Well no, to be more specific I'm shocked that they think they've looked into who to vote for and don't know that or don't think it's relevant.

If this thread was full of people going, shit, do you know, I can't believe I didn't know that, I'd understand it, but it's the whole, well why would I? And it doesn't affect me that is not really understandable.

Love Naomi Long. 😊

I think a lot of English folk have the whole of NI politics filed under 'highly complex - not my problem'. And then they sealed the file with parcel tape and shoved it under the bed.

Really, anyone voting Leave should have taken a moment to consider how Brexit would affect NI, but I don't imagine for a second they did. But they still go ballistic if you imply they didn't know what they were voting for, so

Myself, i didn't emigrate from NI 30-odd years ago so I could continue to give valuable headspace to the insanity that is flag-based squabbling and Cash for Ash and all the rest of it. I have taken a conscious decision to ignore the lot of them.

I think a lot of English folk have the whole of NI politics filed under 'highly complex - not my problem'. And then they sealed the file with parcel tape and shoved it under the bed.

Have to admit that I also put a heavy weight on top of it.