I feel very ignorant when it comes to all things political. Do you take an interest in politics? Is it a heap of tosh, could things be run better with a different system? What do you think about it all?
QOD 20/02/2013 - Do You Take an Interest in Politics?
- Thread starter Flipo's Mum
- Start date
I'm ashamed to say that all things political leave me cold. Ashamed because I know that these people are in charge of running the country so I feel that I SHOULD be involved as it is the apathy towards becoming involved and voting that doesn't help the situation. I never watch any political programmes and will go and do something else if there is coverage on the news :redface: Dom will update me with things relevant to my life.
As a grown up I suspect I should be interested but to be honest I'm not in the slightest, what happens in our country is out of our control no matter who is in the power seat and any government will do as they see fit regardless of the people who put them there.
No interest what so ever,rightly or wrongly I,my family and my friends are all happy and I'm very much ignorance is bliss on things like these,wouldn't know names of anybody etc.I live a quiet simply life and don't feel the need to worry or think about such things.
I do like to keep upto date with what is happening and I always use my Vote - women fought hard and died to get us the right- lets face it you can't really complain about those in power if you ignore the system that puts them there - but I don't have any direct involvement in politics - but I do like to have the facts and an informed view.
How much clout towards influencing what the politicians say do we have anyway? If all of us "as long as my life is OK, I don't bother" individuals DID take a stand, collectively... WOULD it make a difference? Do the lower level politicians who interact with their area and hold surgeries really take into account what their Joe Public people want?
This is why I sometimes feel guilty....
Are you going to comment, Libbyo?
This is why I sometimes feel guilty....
Are you going to comment, Libbyo?
This is me too, I'm doing OK out of life so carry on as I am!
I do vote though even if it's just to say none of the above!
To some degree yes..i take some interest in what is currently happening but this has been a fairly recent thing. I think mostly because i watch BBC breakfast before i go to work
3 Years ago the best of the knowledge was that Gordon Brown was PM :redface:
3 Years ago the best of the knowledge was that Gordon Brown was PM :redface:
I have to agree completely Lemme.
I take an active interest and watch the news daily (easy when the news channel has to be on the 6 screens dotting around the set room floor).
I like to have a good knowledge about how my country is being run. I do get very angry with most of it but hey I get angry with how my office is run!!!
I vote at every election.
I take an active interest and watch the news daily (easy when the news channel has to be on the 6 screens dotting around the set room floor).
I like to have a good knowledge about how my country is being run. I do get very angry with most of it but hey I get angry with how my office is run!!!
I vote at every election.
I go through waves of being very interested and then not being remotely interested.
I remember my careers interview well, when asked what I wanted to do I said I wanted to be an MP!
I've always been fairly idealistic. With rights come responsibilities, I get that from my parents. My dad was a local councillor, and that was years after my careers interview so I wasn't led by him.
I do believe that the vast majority of people who get into politics do so from an idealistic motive and then it all gets lost from there. The machine takes over and the ideals get lost along the way. I know from my dads experiences (he chaired our local planning committee) just how frustrating it can be and how disheartening as people who didn't know him assumed...well the usual assumptions and stereotypes regarding politicians. Such a shame as he wasn't hard skinned enough and took it to heart so we lost a good councillor.
I remember my careers interview well, when asked what I wanted to do I said I wanted to be an MP!
I've always been fairly idealistic. With rights come responsibilities, I get that from my parents. My dad was a local councillor, and that was years after my careers interview so I wasn't led by him.
I do believe that the vast majority of people who get into politics do so from an idealistic motive and then it all gets lost from there. The machine takes over and the ideals get lost along the way. I know from my dads experiences (he chaired our local planning committee) just how frustrating it can be and how disheartening as people who didn't know him assumed...well the usual assumptions and stereotypes regarding politicians. Such a shame as he wasn't hard skinned enough and took it to heart so we lost a good councillor.
I have been more aware who's who in politics as I've got older. As a youngster I really didn't give a hoot. The budget was just a real irritation that meant kid's telly wasn't on when I came home from school. I went through a vaguely militant stage when I was a member of the Labour party and took a role on the Branch Executive Committee of the TU. Frankly that was a load of head to head 'I want, I want' tosh so I soon drifted away from '80's politics.
I now know who holds the main positions in both government and shadow cabinets, though I respect very few of them compared to some of the 'big guns' of the past. I do read all the gumph that comes round at local election time. Local politics round here is dismal, dispiriting and based around grabbing, self interested self-regarding loud mouths who follow the main chance. They are opinionated, bigoted, half a generation behind the times and, frequently, appallingly rude and disrespectful in meeting, public and otherwise. That would be less important if they were effective. They are not.
If you don't engage you can't complain. I have always voted. People who sound off about politics and don't vote void their own opinions.
I now know who holds the main positions in both government and shadow cabinets, though I respect very few of them compared to some of the 'big guns' of the past. I do read all the gumph that comes round at local election time. Local politics round here is dismal, dispiriting and based around grabbing, self interested self-regarding loud mouths who follow the main chance. They are opinionated, bigoted, half a generation behind the times and, frequently, appallingly rude and disrespectful in meeting, public and otherwise. That would be less important if they were effective. They are not.
If you don't engage you can't complain. I have always voted. People who sound off about politics and don't vote void their own opinions.
Hmmm I didn't say I don't vote, I do and like you believe that is something a lot of women fought hard for us to have the right to. Still doesn't mean I take an interest in politics, I used to but gave up as I got fed up with getting cross about something I could do nothing about.
As an example, take the HS2, do real, normal joe public want it? Mostly no, certainly those who are being compulsory purchased out of their family homes or those who's homes are being devalued by it, or those who will have to have it whizzing passed their green and pleasant countryside etc etc
Do the politicians care one iota about said joe publics concerns?? NO will they even listen NO, they will do whatever is best for them and their pockets not the 'country' or normal people who just want to live their lives.
Also the banking crisis, how much money have to government given to the banks to help them out of their own greedy hole? Where does it all go? Not back into lending that's for sure, not where it is needed, the banks should be forced to use the money they have been given to get the country properly back on it's feet, not to pay themselves an extra big salary for managing to make a few extra pounds to pay themselves with!
Ok I'll get off my soap box now (hangs head in shame) but you can probably see now why I don't 'do' politics.
As an example, take the HS2, do real, normal joe public want it? Mostly no, certainly those who are being compulsory purchased out of their family homes or those who's homes are being devalued by it, or those who will have to have it whizzing passed their green and pleasant countryside etc etc
Do the politicians care one iota about said joe publics concerns?? NO will they even listen NO, they will do whatever is best for them and their pockets not the 'country' or normal people who just want to live their lives.
Also the banking crisis, how much money have to government given to the banks to help them out of their own greedy hole? Where does it all go? Not back into lending that's for sure, not where it is needed, the banks should be forced to use the money they have been given to get the country properly back on it's feet, not to pay themselves an extra big salary for managing to make a few extra pounds to pay themselves with!
Ok I'll get off my soap box now (hangs head in shame) but you can probably see now why I don't 'do' politics.
I used to take an interest - before I got older, more cynical etc. I used to believe that my vote actually made a difference. And I can still remember my first vote when we bought our own home together - trundling down to the local church hall to do the deed. I am sorry to say I don't bother anymore. I had a postal vote but whizzed it in the bin last time. CBA I'm afraid. Each party has good and bad points. No one party is particularly good. I try and be a nice citizen and do the right thing - that will have to be enough!
I do follow the news as much as I can from the Today programme and PM. I always vote and try to be informed about how I vote: I researched our candidates for Police Commissioner quite carefully, for example.
Like Wally, though, I tend to believe that anybody who wants to be in politics shouldn't be allowed to be :tongue:. I favour the old Athenian system where the government is chosen by ballot from all full citizens.
So just think, it could be you!!!!!
Like Wally, though, I tend to believe that anybody who wants to be in politics shouldn't be allowed to be :tongue:. I favour the old Athenian system where the government is chosen by ballot from all full citizens.
So just think, it could be you!!!!!
I agree with this, many if not all senior politicians get swept along and manipulated by spin doctors and 'advisors' and often end up not knowing their own minds.
I do vote though. I can totally understand people's apathy - a lot of my friends just say that it makes no difference whoever gets in, their all going to be useless - but I haven't forgotten my history A level, and what happened in Germany when there was voter apathy in 1933. I do realise we're a long way from that scenario, but voting does give us some voice.
Funny this, that's the same attitude of people in Victorian times who didn't want the railways built in the first place! The railways have been fabulous for this country and the success of this little island was due in a large part to our development of the railways.
I find this a fascinating subject as I did economics and social history at uni. Times may have changed but human nature remains the same. Of course we're going to want to protect our own back yard, we were faced with a new road going in at the end of our garden down an old disused military railway line and fought it like mad. Truth was it was needed to develop the area and has been an improvement to everyone else who's garden it doesn't run past.
That's the difference though JC It's not in my back yard, in fact it doesn't come anywhere near me, (sadly I'm not lucky enough to live in a nice rural area) just trying to show why I have no interest in politics is all. To be fair I'm not in favour of it and yes that may be very Victorian in many peoples eye's, I'm not the sort of person who can't stand change or hates to see progress, I just cannot see the benefit of HS2, much like the M6 toll which has been around for years now and still isn't making a profit.
No one wants it, no one but the politicians and those who stand to make some cash from it, (if indeed they ever do) but more to the point is the fact that it wouldn't matter who objected, even if every man and his dog stood up and said we don't want it the politicians would still go ahead as it's what they want and that's all that matters - I guess the point I was trying to make is politicians will do and have always done what's best for them and no one will ever be able to change that.
We should have two votes, one for and one against, so the buggers in power know how much everyone hates them as well as votes for them.
Anyone who stands for government ought not be allowed !
There, politics in a nutshell!
Yes something like this.
I have to say I leave well alone. I have no idea what the answer is.
When I was in high school I really enjoyed Modern Studies and kept up to date with politics however now it just makes me angry.
I have a vague knowledge of who people are and what they do (or say they'll do and then don't). But I try to read as little about it as possible because I do just end up in a bad mood.
I have a vague knowledge of who people are and what they do (or say they'll do and then don't). But I try to read as little about it as possible because I do just end up in a bad mood.
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