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?

Horrible thread

That's an utter shambles. The old style passport was called a "British passport" here, I'd forgotten. I'm lost for words (and that's quite a challenge).

On Irish matters, I obviously bow to the knowledge of anyone with your name Maude

It's not a question of superiority, it's a question of basic voter competence

Oh bore off. Of course I know who they are. Given they don't stand in England, Wales or Scotland I can hardly vote or not vote for them.

Blimey there's another thread in Active where we might also qualify as 'ignorant fuckers' according to the title. Don't think I dare go on that one.

You can arise (and go now) Felix

Stop, MaudGonne, or I am going to get up on a chair and recite 'Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation' in its entirety.

It's about noisy buggers in the theatre. You'll have to try harder to qualify there.

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

Someone upthread said Fair enough if you are under 30, at a pinch, but were all the over-30s fast asleep during the 1980s and 90s?
1987. Who born and bred in mainland UK 1987 will have a full grasp of Northern Ireland politics and can even remember the troubles well?
Even over 30s were born mid 80s and children.
I remember the bombings on the news. I couldn't have told you who all the parties were though and what they stood for.
Definitely had heard of Sinn Fein even in the 80s. DUP not so much though.

there is no country called Ireland
We know. We also know that there is an island called Ireland. When talking about NI we often just say Ireland.

Fair point Maud Gonne - sorry I got that wrong.

No worries Pansies - sorry if I was snippy

Maude

So I could still be apathetic and a fucker....

Probably know more about the DUP than the theatre so would probably be back to being ignorant then. Best quit while I'm ahead.

The DUP are a bunch of right wing bigoted pitas! Simply that really!

But wrt passport, is it not annoying to be called British, when the UK is "Great Britain and Northern Ireland?"

I'm not disputing the right to be called British, but as someone who grew up with the ethnic minority of "other" in the eighties and nineties, I think it would piss me off, being given but then being told "You're not one of us," essentially.

I knew of them, I knew what the initials stood for, I knew about the paramilitary connections, I knew Arlene Foster was the leader. I knew about the biofuels thing. I didn't know they were against gay marriage and believed in creationism. I had no idea re their views on Brexit.
I'm reasonably clued up, I listen to Radio 4 and read newspapers - if it ever came up then it passed me by. So yes, there was ignorance but I don't feel I should be ashamed of it.

Dunno Vonk. As you may have guessed, I'm Irish ( ) so couldn't speak personally. But IME many NI citizens regard themselves as British and that is their chosen term.

Many others from a unionist/Protestant background regard themselves as Norther Irish. I like this term as it sounds cross community to me, and NI is a pretty awesome place (politics very much aside). Whether those people dislike the legal/grammatical term "British" for nationality, passports and everything else I couldn't say.

(One thing that does annoy me is Team GB at the Olympics. Full name is GB & NI but it's not marketed that way, which seems a bit hard to the NI athletes who choose to compete for the UK rather than Irish team. But that's hardly the biggest of issues tonight!)

BTW there is an excellent film, The Journey, about relationship between McGuiness and Paisley coming out this year with Timothy Spall as Paisley and Colm Meeney as McGuiness

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. thats not what you said you said
'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'' now simple facts might offend you but they are facts people living on the ireland of island wither the republic of northern ireland can be referred to as irish what they and you call yourself is a different matter

No, I agree it's not the biggest issue, but it's the same point.
Pfffft.

This election will raise the profile of DUP anyway, (like the last one did for Clegg).

The DUP are not an Irish political party. That IS a fact.

Interesting thread, apart from the obvious rude and goady OP.

I was born in the 60s and was fairly interested in current affairs. I vaguely remember that Ian Paisley's party, the DUP, was the more extreme Unionist party and there was also the Ulster Unionist Party which was of equal (or greater?) size. Sinn Fein was the political part of the IRA but the biggest Republican party was the SDLP, wasn't it? Sinn Fein didn't actually have any elected MPs in the 70s or 80s IIRC. (Off to google)

I think there is absolutely no shame in not knowing much about minority parties when they don't stand in your area. How many people outside Wales know whether Plaid Cymru is right or left wing or centrist?

is that what you were after

Well I was also a kid in the nineties. I got the shit kicked out of me aged 11 when I answered a question incorrectly. The question was "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?"

I couldn't walk properly for two days.

I walked past burnt out cars on my way to school. I had to watch what I said and who I said it to. I saw neighbours burnt out of their homes for saying they wrong things to the wrong people. Even 90s NI kids saw some shit. Ask the Holy Cross kids.

I'm in a mixed marriage now. Thirty years ago a relative was murdered in broad daylight for being in a mixed marriage.

I'm proud of NI and how far it's come. We have gone through so much. I didn't feel safe as a child. I'm not going to accuse anyone of being ignorant of NI politics because they are complicated. But fucking hell.

I don't know what to think today. I hold both a British and an Irish passport and for the first time in my life I don't feel connected with either. I'm a British citizen. I didn't realise how clueless the majority of other British citizens are about what my country went through - is still going through. I'm not blaming anybody. I can see why. It's just.....very surprising.

This was our lives. Our homes. It lasted years. As a country, we pretty much have a sort of mass ptsd. I feel like what we went through has been swept under the rug and we've been expected to forget about it.

I don't know what to think. Only that I have friends from all over the UK, and the stuff I've been hearing and reading just.... I don't know.