[rereasonable]

I specifically remember during a morning assembly with our head of year a brief mention of politics during the run up to a general election, and her advice (instruction?) was that in polite society, people do not discuss their political views. This was around the ages of 9/10 y/o, I believe.

Recent events make me think this may have been a better approach to the state we have devolved to currently. But the internet happened, people started waking up and talking more, so now you have the opposite approach which is an endless torrent of bipartisan squabbling hypercharged by social and traditional media, and everything in between. This has resulted in low turnouts and a level of general disinterest in local and national politics. People now have stronger opinions about things happening in far away places than their own (crumbling) local towns and cities, because it's just too tiring to care about things which at best won't care about you, and at worst will actively try to harm you.

That said, what was interesting is that some years later there was discussion about opening up the vote to 16 year olds, and most of the discussion/pressure/focus was on the 6th formers who stayed on at high school, as it was assumed the dropouts and academically un-serious college-goers would have little interest in such things. There is certainly a pre-political class present in these institutions and their societies, leading to the public (read private) school system providing the majority of our politcal representation, with sadly no change in sight for the forseeable future.

My opinion is that the cynics were/are correct, politics is a class based business/sport/game depending on where you should happen to find yourself within the socio-economic strata of the UK.

Also, we share our horribly broken voting system with one other country in the world. That country would be Belarus. I haven't visited Belarus, so can't comment on how it's working out for them. But in this country, it has driven mediocrity in our representation and leadership much to our detriment. And a party called ReformUK (previously known as UKIP then the Brexit Party) may not be the panacea some people expect it to be. So you now have a choice between the joke of a party in power, and the joke of a party in opposition.

-The thoughts and opinions comprising this comment were generated by a human being using hardware and energy paid for by a human being. I would like to thank the internet and the HN website for enabling them to be published to the wider population for general consumption.

[hermitcrab]

>Also, we share our horribly broken voting system with one other country in the world. That country would be Belarus.

Apparently there are only 2 countries in the world where clergy automatically get seats in government, the UK (bishops in the house of Lords) and Iran.

Belarus and Iran. Not the greatest of company to keep.

[rereasonable]

We're going to the moon, baby!

[hermitcrab]

>in polite society, people do not discuss their political views

Discussing politics with friends and family can be fraught. Personally I think politics is too important not to discuss[1]. But I think it would be good to be more informed, even if you prefer to keep your opinions to yourself.

[1]But maybe not with your anti-vaxx, racist uncle.