To think this is an immature approach to voting?

[foreverstardust]

I asked my colleague if she’s voting after work and she replied no “because I’m not informed enough to make a decision”, I politely told her to educate herself as this is a lazy view to have. Not as bluntly as that obviously.

Because he is very, very dogmatic in his views and thinks Farage would be a viable PM. In fairness he articulates himself well (both DS and Farage!) but we talked about and he doesn’t think the voting age should be lowered either.

My school did, what I now suspect was a conscious experiment based on the fact that this was mid 90s in South Africa so a difficult time where the reality that the history and "facts" we'd all been taught was often a load of bollocks.

We were studying the French Revolution. As it turned out, one class was learning about the French Revolution in a manner biased towards the Revolution, and the other class was learning about it in a manner biased towards the nobility. It was very interesting and as students we were completely shocked to discover the differences when we were brought together for study groups.

Having said that, I think it's ridiculous not to want to teach politics in case of bias. Over the course of their school career children will engage with dozens teachers of different types of background and political leanings. Plus, as others have said, teachers are trained to provide learning that is as unbiased as possible and that encourages children to come to their own conclusions or to access sources of different types.

Fair enough. I think it depends a lot on individual circumstances. I lived abroad for a while but always knew I would come back, and wasn't eligible to vote in the country I lived in, so I continued to vote in the UK.

I'm blunt and I probably wouldn't tell you either.

Just vote for anybody. Its not as if everyone else is clued up.

Some people are too tired, pissed off or apathetic about politics. If they don't want to vote, don't chastise them.

YABU. I wish more people had recognised that they weren’t informed enough to vote in the brexit referendum.

She should spoil her ballot if she doesn't want to vote for a candidate. Let them know that nothing was suitable, rather than just fading into the background.

I just wish we'd never been given that stupid referendum in the first place

@Applescruffel yes, or that!

Theres no obligation to be clued up at all. Just place a tick in whose box you like the best. Reform always looks good.

@Fink
me too. If people don't engage with it all, I'd rather they didn't sway the vote ( one can
only hope they all balance out)

I’m an educated professional and I don’t feel sure either so I don’t blame her.

I don’t want to vote Tory due to the sleaze and racism.
I don’t want to vote Labour due to their stance on women’s rights and lack of support for Palestine (and also worried about tax hikes as a higher rate tax payer)
Libdems weren’t any better when they were in shared power with Tories (Vince Cable refusing to meet the sub-postmasters in the Post Offuce scandal was disgusting).
A vote for the greens feels like a wasted vote.

So I’ll either spoil my ballot or not vote.

I have said this before. My late beloved Dad used to say "If you don't vote, don't moan"

I think it’s a wasted vote but at least she’s honest about it. Better than the people who say “no because all the parties are terrible” and then complain - if it wasn’t pure laziness they’d realise you have to choose the lesser of the evils (or an independent).
I do use the “not informed enough” phrase to get out of conversations about conflicts etc. but then have to listen to even less informed people spouting their views

It does grind my gears a bit when women in particular don’t vote because barely 100 years ago we weren’t even allowed to

I think that's an overstated problem. Especially if you teach understanding bias.

You must have missed all the posts on here about people voting for Labour against the "Tory scum". Do these people not sound dogmatic with polarised opinions to you ?

You don't have to be a 15 year old to hold dogmatic views on political issues.

Peoples opinions mature as they get older. There is a well known shift from left to right leaning views from young to older people.

I don't see that as a good reason to ban people under 40 voting just because their views haven't reached a stable conclusion.

Surely it’s the other way around? Those who vote in a democracy do so in the knowledge that they accept the results whether or not they get their desired outcome? A vote for any candidate is a ticket to ride the train for better or worse, so how can you complain?

I'd have thought you were a tit if you spoke to me like that. Each to their own on whether they choose to vote or not.

because if you don't vote, or at least spoil your paper, you aren't making any effort to engage with the process...to put your weight behind what you believe is right. If you don't engage with the process and then moan that you don't like this or that aspect of government then how will you answer when someone asks "so what did you do about it?" you are basically getting on the train we all have to ride and saying you don't care where it goes

The thing about this is I sort of get it.

Except, even with a government we like, we expect our politicians to make the really tough decisions day in and day out. We expect them to decide what is going to be best, even when no solution is perfect.

And yet we can't be bothered to make a similar choice once every 5 years?!

I really don't understand why there's this view today that politicians and political parties have to be 100% perfect 100% of the time. It's a blody difficult job.

And the whole, "i can't vote for a party that has a single policy I disagree with".. How on earth are you able to maintain frienships or a marriage? DH and I broadly agree on the big things, but there are loads of small things we don't agree on. And that's just two people, making an effort every single day to be there for the other one and to keep our lives moving in tandem.

And yet we expect a large political party representing millions of people to have full agreement on each and every thing?

I generally can’t influence them to bring a working pen (or not break the one I lend them) so I don’t give much of a chance to me influencing their politics. Added to which I’m a professional, and quite able to discuss politics without giving my own view away/presenting it more positively than other views. I teach English, so I often have to talk about politics to make sense of the literature (An Inspector Calls, for eg).

This is a really basic lack of understandig of political processes.

So, I've said "Yes" to Party x and now I'm never allowed to complain or ask for anything ever again? To use the marriage analogy in my last post - that's like saying, "right, we got married and I stood up in the big white dress in front of all my friends and family and now I can never ever complain about a thing DH does, ask him to change, expect new things etc". Rubbish. Instead, getting married told the whole world that me and Dh were going to try to make a life together and that we would engage with each other on a daily basis to make decisions that work best for us, and in the longer term, for our children and other family.

I see a vote as more like buying shares in a company. I have a stake and I am actively involved so now I expect the political leaders to remember that ultimately, they are answerable to me. Because I can choose to vote for someone else next time.

My former colleague used to ask her husband who he’d voted for and just copy him 🤦‍♀️

I'm a very blunt person, but have used similar lines to shut down conversation when someone asks me a question where the answer is basically none of their business. I don't enjoy 'political debate' because 99% of the time it's essentially people parroting what they listen/read to in their particular echo chamber. I've educated myself in as much as I've read all the manifestos for each candidate and voted for the one I'm most comfortable with. However, I wouldn't consider myself expert enough to actually assess how likely it is each policy could/will be implemented, which at the end of the day seems to be the most important factor. I can agree with your colleague that I'm not informed in that regard (which is realistically probably the case for your average Joe) I don't think there's anything 'lazy' in admitting that.