Am I being unreasonable to think the lack of political education is damaging democracy?

[HopeToFind]

I don’t think this is talked about enough.
Political understanding in the UK is often alarmingly poor, and it is allowing media bias, misinformation, and shallow outrage politics to thrive unchecked.

Too many people do not even understand the difference between local councils and Parliament, or between a council employee and an elected councillor — yet still speak with absolute certainty.
There is also a poor understanding of how taxes fund collective services such as social care, housing, roads, waste collection, and emergency services.

Political education should start in schools, not to tell children what to think politically, but to teach critical thinking, evidence, fact checking, democratic structures, accountability, and standards in public life — including the Nolan Principles of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, and leadership. My school provided a subject called ‘Civics’, it gave me a basic understanding of being a citizen.

Instead, public debate is increasingly shaped by headlines, algorithms, and “keyboard warrior” commentary that is often factually incorrect but repeated confidently enough to gain traction. A population with limited political understanding is far easier to manipulate, whether by partisan media, social media echo chambers, or misinformation campaigns.

I am giving credit to Newcastle City Council for actively correcting misinformation and challenging ill-informed claims on social media. I love reading their Facebook page, where they evidence the truth. More public bodies should challenge false narratives with facts rather than allowing misinformation to spread unopposed.

Critical thinking matters. Research matters. Understanding how government, due process, and institutions actually work matters. If more people took the time to examine data instead of outrage driven narratives, they would realise that not every politician from every party can simply be dismissed as liars. Policies can be checked. Voting records can be checked. Legislation can be read. Data exists.

Democracy is weakened when political education disappears. Too many people now form opinions from headlines, clips, slogans, and sound bites instead of facts, legislation, policy, and evidence.

Take the debate around asylum seekers. Social media and the media, repeatedly claim the UK is being “overrun” by asylum seekers, yet official figures consistently show the largest groups entering the UK are people on work and student visas. That doesn’t mean immigration shouldn’t be debated. It absolutely should be. But debate without facts becomes propaganda.

The media also carries responsibility. Too many interviewers accept rehearsed answers without challenge. Where is their preparation? Where are the follow up questions? Where is the scrutiny that drills into what politicians and councillors actually mean, how policies will work, what evidence supports them, and what the consequences are?
The local leader of the council claiming he is going to save ‘billions’ - interviewer should done his research and know to ask ‘what is your council budget?’, ‘what are the most expensive services? ‘What changes are you going to make to this service to save money?’ Answers would have shown that the leader either didn't have a clue (budget is millions, not billions), that he did or did not know what the most expensive service is and whether he was or was not able to explain how money would be saved in caring for the elderly and vulnerable adults. The TV interviewer asked nothing, just accepted the claim of the billions in savings! A viewing audience misled unless they think critically about the issue and look for facts. (Quite easily, council budgets are public documents).

Democracy only works when citizens are informed, questioning, and willing to think critically, not when public opinion is shaped by algorithms, outrage, and misinformation.

The voxpop bit that heavily features in news reports are infuriating. Largely uninformed people’s views and opinions on things they might not be qualified on, given equal weighting to facts and data.

I remember watching Lady Hale giving her Supreme Court judgment on Boris proroguing Parliament on the BBC, instead of focusing on analysis which might have helped people understand the situation bette it cut to a reporter getting reaction to the judgment from 4 neets who happened to be hanging around a shopping centre in Stoke on Trent on a Tuesday morning.

Whilst those lads were perfectly entitled to any opinions, the sharing of them urmming and erring all over the news didn’t really add anything to the analysis

This is a thread about education and critical thinking.

If you think men can become women then you cannot think critically.

And you're unlikely to be voting Conservative or Reform.

This might be my favourite ever post on MN. I certainly hope all the posters on the "Everyone on MN is politically out of touch" read it, but sadly I think if you've got to voting age and you don't have a fundamental grasp of basic civics, you won't learn them now (unless you actively choose to).

I'm so sick of everything being black and white, or a zero-sum game where our team HAS to be the winner and their team HAS to be the loser. This is how Trump operates, and it is tearing the US apart from top to bottom. Relying on algorithms to keep you informed is like relying on a picky toddler to plan the family meals: it might seem easier, but no one gets a decent healthy diet. Plus they'll serve up loads of shit, too.

Schools' political education really varies, so where in one place everyone leaves with a thorough understanding, in most places this isn't the case at all, plus they're already disengaged because they're used to getting their "news" and "facts" from Tiktok and Instagram. They already know the "truth". Sigh.

I don't know what to suggest for the future. Yes to a Civics education, definitely.

The media coverage of politics generally is dire these days.

No room for different opinions within the same party to be discussed, any differences are spun as challenges and dissent.

Semantic games, where anything a politician says is scrutinised for a nuance that can generate a headline, and the actual ideas ignored.

This absolutely. I’m kind of sick of the electorate being blamed for ‘’not being educated’ when politicians have deliberately conflated international issues into a local election. Also the byzantine approach to governance in this country from parish councils to unitary authorities, mayors, devolved powers. Is it any wonder people switch off and confuse what’s actually in scope for their vote? Maybe the electoral commission should be held responsible for clear comms, neutral comms on what the election in any given area covers?

And the female population (who depend on a sex-based definition of ‘woman’ to ensure their legal sex-based rights remain protected) is 51% of the population. It’s not about trans people as individuals, it’s about gender ideology that, if implemented in law as trans activists intend, would completely undermine our sex-based legal protections as women.

You are not wrong the amount of people I saw on my local Facebook page saying they were voting Restore despite there being no candidates. They must have had a shock when they got to the ballet box.

Lots of posters not knowing that this was local elections was also pretty scary. I’ll leave you to guess which party they were voting for

Restore are dyed in the wool Christo-fascists.

@SovietSpy So the electorate thinks what they are told to think do they? Pretty poor of thats the case!

What a couple of days! Council elections!

Reading SM, I am 100% convinced of the need to educate. So many people do not understand the basics of councils never mind national politics. Many people confused and showing very little understanding of party policies.

Let’s hope the newly elected councillors know their role and are effective in public meetings, challenging and holding to account senior council staff.

There are some councils that are nearly all new councillors. It will be very interesting to view the public meetings.

@HopeToFind The council officers will be tearing their hair out. Lots of these councillors will be useless and all will discover there’s no money for grand gestures.

I do think people use council elections for protest votes against a sitting government. It’s unintelligent and tedious. It removes experience and people who were doing a decent enough job in difficult circumstances. We have an economic situation in the uk that needs very difficult policies to crack snd Labour hasn’t been allowed to do it. The councils will find exactly the same issue.

I will definitely take time to watch the live coverage of the council meetings where there is a big change of councillors.

I already submit questions, as required to my council, read the agenda and minutes and watch the council meetings. (No election here).