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?

We had a choice of Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green & Monster Raving Loony.

No need for me to care about the policies of the DUP. There aren't any round here. No SNP or PC either. Funny that.

Doh. Get your facts straight OP, before you start slagging people off.

I hadn't heard of them. I wasn't asleep in the 90s I was just a kid who didn't care much for politics at the time!

Same, glad it's not just me! Was starting to think I was doing childhood all wrong and should have been studying politics in my free time after primary/high school instead!

I've heard of them and I know quite a lot about them. Does that mean I'm not apathetically ignorant ?

The title had me really worried there for a moment.

I don't have any knowledge of Ireland or Irish politics because it's never interested me, I've never been there and I don't know any Irish people. That doesn't mean I don't know lots about lots of other things

And yet this obscure topic and the reason the DUP exist in the first place has involved a conflict in which 3500 people were killed, the assassination of the British ambassador to Ireland, killed a Tory MP with a car bomb at the House of Commons, bombings in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, six killed and 90 injured by a bomb in Harrods, an attempted assassination of Margaret Thatcher which killed five people, including a Tory MP, the bombing of the London Stock Exchange, another Tory MP killed by a car bomb in Kent, mortars shot into the garden of 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting -- not to even mention the Warrington, Docklands and Manchester bombs.

My eyes hurt from all those caps locks.

Loyalist paramilitaries [who are to the DUP as Sinn Feinis to the IRA]

This is just not true. Please, stop embarrassing yourself by posting such rubbish.

NameChanger22

The DUP are a British political party. As in British. As in the country that you live in. That's why it's weird and a little embarrassing for so many mainland Brits not to have heard of them.

"THE DUP ARE NORTHERN IRISH POLITICS AND THUS PART OF THE UK."

I used Irish because I was replying to someone who'd defended not knowing about DUP by saying they didn't pay attention to Irish politics... I mean I could have put Irish in quotation marks, but it seemed rude.

Next time I'll shout in caps, because that's much more reasonable, even though the point I was making was that it is UK politics and not Irish...

Pink.

Sorry Vonk, not my usual style. But I'm seriously fucked off by some of the posts on here tonight. NI politics are not Irish politics. They are British politics or NI politics, but they are not Irish politics.

We have enough problems of our own.

MaudGonneMad

Why are they so different? Honest question btw - I was under the impression that the loyalist paramilitaries were if nothing else sympathetic to the DUP.

I'm from the mainland and have at least a passing knowledge of NI politics at Stormont. I am nearly 50 though so that might be why. I also know people from NI.

The DUP are not the political wing of loyalist paramilitaries in the way that SF was the political wing of the IRA. Loyalists might be sympathetic to the DUP - and in some cases there was some overlap of membership - but their groups were not affiliated in the same way. Loyalist paramilitaries had their own political wings - Ulster Political Research Group, Progressive Unionist Party, and others.

But tabula, you said "But Irish politics isn't separate...".

Irish politics are separate. As an Irish citizen, do you not see why I might be offended by you insisting that Irish politics are anything on earth to do with the UK? Do you not understand how big a difference including the word "Northern" would've made to that sentence?

Ireland (north or south) is NOT part of Britain. The DUP are an Irish political party that has representation at Westminster. The subtleties of NI politics are too boring too be bothered with for most Brits. It's not an embarrassment it's a fact of life.

strange when i look in the dictionary Irish means The people of Ireland; Irish people collectively.
'NI citizens can choose to view themselves as British or Irish, it's up to each individual. Many have both passports.'
nope i can assure you none of them have british passportts they dont exist great Britain Britain refers to wales Scotland and England they will have United Kingdom of Great Britian and northern Ireland passports
'I'm from Ireland* (the country, as in Republic of) and I also find it offensive when you refer to them as Irish. They are extremely right wing, in a way that would never fly with the Irish electorate and we would like nothing to do with them, thank you very much'
intresting you believe only people with certain views are Irish
however words have meanings and the term irish in the oed means 'The people of Ireland; Irish people collectively.' and Ireland in the oed 'An island of the British Isles, lying west of Great Britain. Approximately four fifths of the area of Ireland forms the Republic of Ireland, with the remaining one fifth forming Northern Ireland.' so whether you or the dup find it offensive dosnt make it factually wrong

The DUP are a Northern Irish political party that has representation at Westminster.

Fixed that for you.

I get your point, Liv.

(Scuttles off to find sunglasses to see if that will help after Tabula threatens caps locks.)

Paddling, it might make you apathetic, rather than apathetically ignorant. Is that better, or worse?

I was very young when the IRA were bombing London, I only have a vague memory of it. I think I've heard anything about the DUP in recent history.

"As in the country you live in" - condescending shit.

"But tabula, you said "But Irish politics isn't separate...""

Yep, because they were referring to DUP as Irish politics - of course actual Irish politics are separate.

*don't think.

IRELAND IS ITS OWN COUNTRY. there is no country called Ireland there is a republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which is part of the united kingdom and northern Ireland

redladybird if you were a kid in the 90s then you presumably are not much over 30. I'm talking about those of us who started being aware of the world around us by the late 80s at the latest - i.e. born before 1980.

Your title is a bit inflammatory but I agree with your point to an extent. It surprises me how little some people in the U.K but mainly England have no idea about N Ireland, sectarianism and how it spilled into the west coast of Scotland.

The reason I can't understand it is because they were targets of an IRA bombing campaign, seemingly without a clue as to why they were a target. Also, the complete ignorance to the very shady stuff the UK government and Army got up to in N Ireland and why some people might be angry enough to turn to terrorist support.

Aside from that nothing annoys me more than people who say they are not interested in politics or they find it boring. Your whole life is pretty much governed by politics and not taking an interest in is nuts.

As I explained in my post, the correct nationality for someone from the UK is British. There is no such thing as UKis.

Thus, someone from France has a French passport.
Someone from Germany has a German passport.
Someone from the UK has a British passport.

People in NI are British, Irish or both. This is self determined, as set out in the Good Friday Agreement.

Identifying the DUP as Irish when they identify as British IS offensive.

I stand by my assertion that the DUP would not be sucessful in Ireland (Republic of), there are no mainstream parties anywhere near as right wing as they are.