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?

If Plaid Cymru had emerged from a Wales that had had 30 years of bloody civil war ending in the late 1990s, which killed 3500 people and involved bombings in cities in England, the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister and the murders of numerous MPs, before entering into a high-profile peace process, I think yes, I'd probably have a fair idea.

tuna your post gave me chills. And I do feel very ignorant. I didn't know who the DUP were before today. I don't know what to say. Sorry for my ignorance though.

tuna Brilliant post.

You know what, I still don't want to know about the DUP. Nobody on this thread had convinced me that I should read up on them. They sound shit.

Yes, after googling, the UUP was the main unionist party in the 70s and 80s. The DUP was much smaller and more extreme but Ian Paisley was very outspoken. There were no Sinn Fein MPs between 1959 and 1983. The SDLP was the biggest nationalist party.

"I think there is absolutely no shame in not knowing much about minority parties when they don't stand in your area"

I think there is when they make up part of the Parliament of the country you live and vote in.

Yanbu we should know this stuff.

I agree. Embarrassing.

They are about to have a casting vote on major decisions in this country. Shit or not, I'd rather know more.

Agree, Tuna, good post.

And it's because the map of the U.K. Is just a bit blurry for most people at all the bits that aren't England!

Dd who is 18 voted for only the second time yesterday, just showed her this thread title and her reaction was to kick my sofa and say what more do people expect of me and my peers

This was our lives. our fucking lives

We had to create special schools - integrated schools - for protestant and Catholic kids to attend together. People were burnt out of their houses for choosing to send their kids to these schools. I work in one now, and I'm so fucking proud of the kids I work with

People died because of the friends they were seen out with, the pubs they drank in, the streets they walked down. The way you pronounced certain letters could get you killed. I remember them barricading the streets over the 12th. You couldn't get in or out.

Like I said, I'm a 90s kid. I followed indyref. I know something about Welsh politics. I have a working knowledge of American and European politics. I'm not saying I know it all, but I could name the key players.

We're on your doorstep. We're less than an hour away via plane. We're part of your system of government, even though some of us would prefer not to be. We're British citizens as much as anyone else, even though -again - some would rather not be.

Yet PP on this thread have dismissed us as "irrelevant"

Christ.

Now that the DUP are holding the balance of power I'm sure we'll all know a lot more about them. Frightening that since the peace process in NI that the strongest opposing nationalist and unionist parties are further apart than ever. Creationism and climate change deniers? God help us...

In fairness Portia, I think at 18 that's fair enough. Most of us aren't that interested in politics as teens and only become interested when we start voting (and paying tax). So naturally, most 18 year olds will have started with the largest parties in their area.

I don't think this excuse washes for those of us who have been around the block a few times though.

The point is that rude and patronising thread title is very annoying. Dd is not stupid she knows exactly what she voted for after researching parties but we're Cornish so why would we research a N.I. party

Portia - the thing is, even in Cornwall a 2 second google would have brought up the 8 existing MPs would have come up and the fact that they always shore up the Tory seats...

So they're relevant as part of knowing who you're voting for as part of a Tory vote or against as part of a vote for another party.

Portia I think many people made informed, considered voting decisions. While also being apathetic and ignorant wrt NI. They're not mutually exclusive. As I said, I can excuse an 18 year old (although I would hope she knows the difference between Ireland and Northern Ireland!), but some posters on here (this thread and others) have been... less than informed.

Tuna

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

I'm sorry but you are wrong. There is no country called Republic of Ireland. Ireland has called itself Ireland since the 1930s/40s, it was only the British who insisted on calling it the Republic of Ireland. They finally officially accepted that the Republic of Ireland was actually just called Ireland as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

were all the over-30s fast asleep during the 1980s and 90s?!

I'm 31; the Good Friday Agreement was signed when I was 12 True, it's remained politically complex since then but the media outside of NI give no shits now about anything going on there. You have to actually seek out the information. Lots of people don't do that.

I knew who the DUP were but have to admit I didn't realise they were so extreme.

We'd probably get exactly the same amount of coverage of NI politics in England if everyone in NI moved to either England, Wales, Scotland, or ROI, and the whole place sank into the ocean. The Porpoise Party vs. Christian Lobsters or something.

An 18 year old doing A levels actually does know the difference between ROI and N.I. especially when her Mums bf comes from Dublin

Then she's doing better than many twice (and more) her age

What tuna said.

Google what it was like for the kids at Lagan college back in the day.

I grew up literally not knowing one catholic.

It would have been dangerous for me to walk down certain streets.

Google the Kevin and Sadie books if you want to read about it.

Best place in the world for fixing knees.

And yet we are irrelevant?

Over 3,600 people died in the troubles out of a population of 1.7 million-ish

That is 135,000 people if it was the population of the uk-ish.

Time to waken up folks.

We lived a bomb a day for 30 years on average. A person died roughly every third day or thereabouts on average.

(Can someone please check my maths)

Jumping the legal name is the Republic of Ireland and the constitutional name is Ireland. It is quite common to use the legal name ROI to distinguish it from Northern Ireland.

As another foreigner (not filthy though, I wash regularly), I hadn't heard of rhe DUP and had the gall to vote yesterday. As i live in England, I cannot vote for the DUP, so I focused my research on the parties that were relevant to my decision. I had heard of the SNP and Sinn Fein along with a couple of others, but in that the DUP wasn't even a part of the debate, why would I have heard of them?

I posted this pic. Look at the split.