Karen Bradley has admitted that before becoming Northern Ireland secretary she was profoundly ignorant of the country’s political divisions and “slightly scared” of the place. She said she was unaware that nationalists did not vote for unionists and that unionists did not vote for nationalists – the most elementary fact about Northern Ireland politics. “I didn’t understand things like when elections are fought, for example, in Northern Ireland – people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice versa. Ms Bradley (47) said Northern Ireland politics had seemed alien to her. “I was slightly scared of Northern Ireland because of my impression and images from 20 years ago.

Source: The Irish Times September 07, 2018 06:56 UTC