Only 25% of Americans can name the British Prime Minister,

[ecofarm]

I know it is Gavin Newsom because of his death penalty decision.

Well aren't you a one percenter.

 

[ThirdTerm]

A majority of the U.S. public also correctly said that Tony Blair is the prime minister of Great Britain. Knowledge of Blair is similar now to what it was three years ago (51%), and significantly higher than it was earlier in his tenure (22% in May 2000). Blair was elected prime minister in 1997. His profile among the American public has been raised due to Britain's involvement in the Iraq war.
Gallup Quizzes Americans on Knowledge of World Leaders

It was 54% in 2006 when Tony Blair was the prime minister of Great Britain. Compared to Tony Blair, Theresa May is a minor figure who is currently handling Brexit negotiations.

 

[AGENT J]

Heard this on the radio, find it quite unbelievable

i dont find it unbelievable at all, im actually shocked it was that high . . .
most dont know the leader of Canada or mexico also

 

[AGENT J]

Maybe 5% of Euros know the Governor of California. That's more people, more land, more economy and more military power.

Have some perspective.

:shock:
did you just compare a state to a country?????
speaking of perspective your post has none lol

 

[Peter King]

Well aren't you a one percenter.

No, addicted to news. Both English/some American and Dutch. And he made the Dutch news cycle with death penalty thing. Big picture and all so it was not surprising to knew his name. Of course he is not nearly as famous as the man New Jersey could not wait to see the back off (Chris Christie, the man who spend most of his days outside of his state and the man of bridgegate) and the Maine idiot Pepé Le Pew, sorry Paul LePage, the man who made D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty from Connecticut and New York famous people :lamo

 

[Lafayette]

From the Guardian - Parliament may look chaotic. But it is inching towards a resolution

Excerpt:

The news may yet be good. There is a way ahead. If we can just keep our nerve for one last push on Monday, a sensible outcome to the Brexit saga is in sight. It is what it always has been: Brexit within a customs union. It is “leave” without lunacy. But first Theresa May is to make one last despairing attempt to get her twice-rejected “red lines” deal through the Commons.

To satisfy the Speaker’s requirement that it not be substantially the same as the previous votes, only the withdrawal agreement will be considered. But this represents the vast bulk of the deal, unchanged. Even as her fractious cabinet combusts, she hurls herself sacrificially into the flames. Until now, May’s way was presented as at least better than hard Brexit. The choice was between it and crashing out. But her deal would still involve arguing over “frictionless trade” for two more ghastly years – and then a possible repeat of this week’s chaos.

On the other hand, Wednesday’s indicative votes, ridiculed as they were, offered a route out of the morass. If May loses today, parliament will resume its “control” of business on Monday. It will re-run its indicative votes, but in a different form, presumably with fewer of them and with preference transfers. The winner is likely to be the customs union put forward variously by Ken Clarke, Jeremy Corbyn and Nick Boles, albeit on Wednesday in absurdly different versions. Why these sponsors failed to join forces is a mystery. They all know that staying in a customs union with our closest and biggest trading partner makes more sense than the fanciful gains from leaving it. They also know that, under the surface tribalism of the Commons chamber, most MPs would agree with this. They could have stymied May in one fell swoop.

Now MPs must do two things. They must not vote to support May, but ensure that her deal is buried once and for all at the Westminster crossroads, garlic in mouth, stake through heart. Already the dark riders of the Tory backwoodsmen have done their treacherous deed. So apparently has the DUP. Then finally Clarke/Corbyn/Boles must conquer the sunny uplands of indicativity, with a clear Commons mandate for a customs union. That could then be rushed to Brussels by the deputy prime minister, David Lidington, or any other proxy for a reluctant May. We know it would be well received.

Alongside a customs union, the other most favoured option on Wednesday was Margaret Beckett’s, for a second referendum – not to rerun the first but to confirm whatever deal is reached with Brussels. The choice would be either to approve parliament’s departure plan or to stay in. After the blood and thunder of the past two years, such a confirming referendum would be cleansing, reasonable and calming.

It's not "all over" yet. The idiot Conservative Party has consigned the country to a second-rate partnership with its larger mutual-trader, the EU. How any people can be so dumb to accept this is beyond comprehension.

How many car manufacturers need to quit Britain and set-up operations in other parts of Europe - who are hungry to receive them - before the Brits understand fully understand how they have set foot into some deep, deep shat?

Having endured the cost of leaving the UK (taking all their machinery with them) and setting up manufacturing in another EU country, those companies are never coming back ... !

PS: I am a yank who has lived/worked in Britain and in both my business dealings and friendships I have found the Brits to be a highly sensible people. But what they have done with Brexit is beyond comprehension and a real shame upon the nation.

 

[perthbum]

I can name the leader of any nation on Earth.

If you let me use my smartphone to do it.

What's the point of memorizing facts?

Because it shows how intelligent you are, some monkeys can use smartphones.

 

[Dittohead not!]

Because it shows how intelligent you are, some monkeys can use smartphones.

That I'd like to see. "Hey, monkey, who's the president of Botswana?"

Monkey types "president of Botswana" into his Google window, and comes up with the answer.

 

[PoS]

Funny how a nonsense subject thread caused such outrage and had so many posts... especially from angry Americans.

Hey Im not outraged, I truthfully admitted I dont know the NZ PM though I do know who May is- and I hope she gets ousted soon for being such a twat.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

Hey Im not outraged, I truthfully admitted I dont know the NZ PM though I do know who May is- and I hope she gets ousted soon for being such a twat.

OK, my bad but you have to admit when you read some posts here it's a bit like the article was a declaration of war against the US.

 

[perthbum]

That I'd like to see. "Hey, monkey, who's the president of Botswana?"

Monkey types "president of Botswana" into his Google window, and comes up with the answer.

ok,you are just above the level of a monkey but not a great deal above.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Maybe that's the 'divine plan of the deep state', just to sound like an Alex Jones conspiracy. Maybe the elites want to keep giving our kids a sub-par education so they'll all remain ignorant and unenlightened. After all, isn't it only people who are curious and seek truth the ones that have had their inquiring minds opened up as tender youths? Maybe it's a big joke on Americans to make them think we have the best country in the world while at the same time we're being robbed of essentials like a good education. It makes it easier for big government to control the masses.

Of course they don't want well educated kids capable of critical thinking. Then they'd figure out that the system threw their parents overboard forty years ago and they're now preparing to throw them in a wood chipper to make Soylent Green out of them unless they agree to do the paperwork and push the buttons to keep the plantation running for minimum wage and live in their cars like good little peasants.

Big government controlling the masses? Try "big organized crime" and "big propaganda" that pays lip service to "big money". That's who's controlling the masses.
It wasn't "big government", hate to burst your bubble.

We "drowned government in the bathtub" already.

We still have "big bureaucracy" but we don't have "big government" anymore, because if we did, that same big government might also be undertaking massive projects that raise the quality of life for millions of people, the way the Rural Electrification Program did, or the Interstate Highway System did, or the Reconstruction Finance Commission did during the Depression.

Instead we have a gangster in the White House who has very nearly placed himself above the law.
Instead we have an End Times vice-president who thinks we should go back to the Moon in the next five years, not realizing that we could go to the Moon tomorrow if someone wants to hire Elon Musk to give it a go.

And Mr. Musk can thank the groundbreaking work our "big government" did in the 1960's to make that possible the first time around.
And WE can thank that "big government" for helping private industry bring the microprocessors to the consumer market decades sooner than anyone else so we could lead the world in computer design the way we still do right now.
And WE can thank that "big government" for helping bring high speed internet to the consumer market ahead of time.

We don't HAVE "big government" anymore, we have stressed out big bureaucracy under attack, crumbling and being subjected to death by a thousand small cuts by End Times fundamentalist cult members who love theocracy and authoritarianism.

We have a BIG ARMY, BIG JAILS and BIG AUTHORITARIANISM.
And we're just around the corner from privatizing BIG LAW ENFORCEMENT, just as soon as the gangsters finish conditioning the people to not trust the law enforcement we have today.
And once BIG LAW ENFORCEMENT becomes a privatized money maker, you can bend over and kiss your ass goodbye, and you won't be able to blame the government for it either.

 

[JMR]

Maybe 5% of Euros know the Governor of California. That's more people, more land, more economy and more military power.

Have some perspective.

The governor of California, and the governor of Florida are not the leaders of our nation. The British Prime Minister is the leader of our greatest ally, and it is pathetic that 75% of Americans have no clue.

Would you find it reasonable that 75% of those living in Britian could not name Donald Trump as President of the US?

 

[Evilroddy]

I think the article is more an indictment of American primary and secondary education than an indictment of the American people. The indictment might also be extended to American mass media which focuses so much on an endless narrative of domestic news and under covers important international news and analysis. If you live hermetically sealed from the outside world then there is little incentive to learn and use foreign leaders' names. Look out of the fish-bowl America.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

 

[JMR]

We fought this war a few hundred years ago so we wouldn't have to care about who's leading England...

All these, Americans don't know this or that about foreign places is stupid.

I don't know who leads france either, or Italy, or pick one of the 900 foreign powers the USA deals with on a regular basis. Probably didn't know it was a country.

It's selective ignorance. I'm ignoring that information because it is not relevant in my life. Even if you tell me right now, I'm not going to commit it to memory.

Other things I'm selectively ignoring. CEOs of companies i'm not a board member of, the price of tea in china, and the Oscars.

Selective ignorance only becomes a problem when you ignore things that you can affect and affect others. Otherwise there are to many ****ing "important people" in the world to bother remembering who is who and why the **** that matters.

British people have to worry about the PM of England. I do not. So I ****ing won't.

The amount of information that can be stored in the human brain is not necessarily finite. Nor do most people have the clairvoyance to know exactly what information may or may not ever be relevant to their life.

Welcome to the 75% ....a great majority of Americans apparently agree with you. Wonder how high the Kim Kardashian recognition percentage might be?

 

[JMR]

Here's the brief skinny:

1] If they don't know the name of the Prime Minister, they likely don't know her policies.
2] If they don't know the U.K.'s policies, they can't evaluate our government's policies in relation to the U.K..
3] They therefore cannot effectively participate in our democratic process, in these matters.
4] We then suffer a less than full democracy.

The danger is not with the U.K., but with us having a properly functioning government, with the citizens keeping it in proper check.

The above is why it's often said,

"for democracy to thrive, requires an educate populace"

This post should be required reading.

 

[ecofarm]

The governor of California, and the governor of Florida are not the leaders of our nation. The British Prime Minister is the leader of our greatest ally, and it is pathetic that 75% of Americans have no clue.

Would you find it reasonable that 75% of those living in Britian could not name Donald Trump as President of the US?

If Brit did something meaningful people would know the name. It's a few million on a small island.

 

[JMR]

If Brit did something meaningful people would know the name. It's a few million on a small island.

They do something meaningful. Please don't raise the level of ignorance here.

 

[Evilroddy]

Maybe 5% of Euros know the Governor of California. That's more people, more land, more economy and more military power.

Have some perspective.

Ecofarm:

Almost 67 million people live in the UK which is more than live in California. The U.K. is a nuclear armed military power, California, not so much. The economy of the U.K. is bigger than that of California. But you are right about land coverage. So 1/4 right or about 25%. Go figure.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

 

[bongsaway]

So, only forty percent can name the president of puerto rico. Stupidity is taking over the average american.

 

[ecofarm]

They do something meaningful. Please don't raise the level of ignorance here.

No more meaningful than any other few million people. Knowing all the leaders of Europe is like knowing all the leaders of US States. Arbitrary lines on a map and arbitrary designations are rather meaningless.

 

[ecofarm]

Ecofarm:

Almost 67 million people live in the UK which is more than live in California. The U.K. is a nuclear armed military power, California, not so much. The economy of the U.K. is bigger than that of California. But you are right about land coverage. So 1/4 right or about 25%. Go figure.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

Pretty much the same, except one is a "nation" and one a "state". And the only thing Brit has done lately is threaten to leave the EU, who cares.

 

[Evilroddy]

Why? Why should we care? Why do some people have a fixation on Britain?

Without looking it up, can you name the head of the government of India? It certainly is a vastly bigger and more populous country and we do a lot of business with India.

Joko104:

Until the elections in India happen soon, yes. Then all bets could be off.

Cheers.
Evilroddy.

 

[JMR]

No more meaningful than any other few million people. Knowing all the leaders of Europe is like knowing all the leaders of US States. Arbitrary lines on a map and arbitrary designations are rather meaningless.

As pointed out a few posts back, May leads a nuclear armed country, and has been our greatest ally. It is amazing that 3/4 of Americans remain ignorant, and then a few more defend their level of unawareness.

I actually believe you are just playing a game here. Have fun!

 

[ecofarm]

As pointed out a few posts back, May leads a nuclear armed country, and has been our greatest ally. It is amazing that 3/4 of Americans remain ignorant, and then a few more defend their level of unawareness.

I actually believe you are just playing a game here. Have fun!

You're losing global perspective to try to make a point about Americans. Unimpressive.