BEING dubbed the most ignorant town in Britain has outraged the people of Swindon.

The town has been revealed as Britain’s most ignorant town after a survey carried out by Webpoll to celebrate the publication of QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance, based on the popular BBC comedy quiz show.

Webpoll canvassed 850 people throughout England, Wales and Scotland, to compile a survey of general ignorance.

A total of 50 people were surveyed in Swindon and asked to answer questions including, which country invented football?, how many legs does an octopus have? and how can you weigh your head?.

Participants were marked on a combination of level of intelligence, logic of answers and creativity and humour of answers.

When asked how do you get to sleep?, people of Swindon answered sleeping pills, beer or other, unmentionable activities.

York came out on top of the survey as the least ignorant in a list of 17 towns.

MP for north Swindon, Robert Buckland, said: “There’s lies, damn lies and then statistics. From years of door knockings and public meetings there are plenty of wonderful people in Swindon. I’ve learnt so much from my constituents and I’m not just saying that.

“When you look at all the organisations in Swindon, we are a cultural hub and that is something we should be celebrating.

“I am very proud to represent Swindon and I think that things like this are a load of nonsense.”

We asked Mr Buckland was paper money was made from, and he answered: ”I want to say paper but it’s probably made from some alloy or something like that.”

Paper money is actually made from cotton and linen fibres.

Mr Buckland replied: “Well that is fascinating, I have learned something new there, but the questions that are being asked are what you call leading questions which makes it difficult.”

Headteacher of Greendown School, Clive Zimmerman, said: “I’d certainly like to think if they were to do a study with the pupils from Greendown questioned Swindon wouldn’t be on that list.”

He was asked what to do when you get a nosebleed, to which he answered, tilt your head back.

When told that was wrong and the actual answer was tilt your head forward because if you lean your head back the blood irritates the stomach, he said: “I will hold my hands up to that one. The number of people who are going to know the answers to those questions, though, is very low.

UK Youth Parliament member Carney Bonner said: “Swindon is doing 10 times more for young people than any other town I know.

“I would like to challenge the person who came up with this study. Swindon can get a bad reputation but it has some great young people who are very bright.”

We asked Carney where the most convenient place to discover a new species was, to which he answered the sea or a zoo. The actual answer was in your own back garden.