This election is making me feel very alienated as an Indian woman

Hi OP

I'm Asian, we came to England in the very early 60's I was just a baby at the time

I've felt very uncomfortable since Sunak started banging on about Rawanda and his promises failed to materilse time after time. This IMO gave a chance to the ultra right-wing to rear its ugly head fro the ashes, Eg going on marches against 'pro Palestine demos' etc. Every time sunak made a bs promise "we will do whatever it takes," and then no action, the right wing were in the news

It had been a long time since I'd experienced hearing almost once a week racist comment IRK - Eg, we shop online but also go out for odds and ends. The big bloke, taking to a couple at the self serverice conveyor till - something like (he fucked up his shopping on the automated till and was waiting for a member of staff to help him sort it out) "you cant get the staff these day, they are all forieng.." - they glacend over to me and my OH as we are not indigenous citizens and a different colour to them. They did not raise their voice but as we were standing about 8/10 feet away, and the guy had lot of beer on the belt, they were chatting re having a "bar-bie" - we both looked at the other and thought WTF

We've also experience more road rage, mostly - Eg, mutterings, looking over as you pass your hear shouting, laughing - happened once every few weeks but before the Rawada fiasco, rarely happened - I guess we drive a nice car/s as well it just winds up the easily led I guess

Now we have the Farge bloke. Foolishly, years ago I thought he was a bit tight wing but had a point re "illeagle immigration" - what a fool I was. The man is more dangerous the the overt right-wing. He has a way with words that attracts middle of the road people nd IMO they are converted to his way of thinking

Thankfilly - Reform may only get one seat, as its a one man band like Farages last party - I hope he loses and f's of to the USA but I fear he will win. We've never been to Clacton, but I guess his people did their homework and felt it was an ideal place for hi

TBH - I blame Sunak for making false promises and winding up most people in the process and also resulting is the racial tensions that had almost disappeared.
I fear we could be back to the early 80's if Reform get more than a couple of seats.

Any news headline with Farage in it I ignore.

I don't want to hear or read anything he has to say

I'm sorry you are feeling this way x

I thought Starmer and Rayner did say it was unacceptable. People can make inferences as to why it was unacceptable. It would be an entirely avoidable and unnecessary trap to fall into.

IvyIvyIvy

Yes of course I would if they were perpetuating “nonsense”.

The incumbent bunch of charlatans are responsible for so much hardship and corruption that it beggars belief that anyone, however politely, would defend their actions.

Have a pleasant day.

Yes I see why they think it's a trap. Still sad not to see them standing up for the right thing.

As my DS said when he was revising for his gcse history, ' those Nazis were bad, but they had really good ideas around architecture!' Farage was racist, and his excuse that he was talking about his wealth is laughable when you consider he is a millionnaire banker himself.
I don't think the furore is 'insane' when you think about the furore over Gordon Brown calling someone a ' bigoted woman' or the stupidity of the furore over Ed Miliband eating a bacon sandwich! More likely the papers smell blood and have decided to confect outrage. If he was winning, it would have all been ' He's shown those losers who's boss'.

Nigel Farage deliberately made a comment that was a 'dog whistle' one. He could easily have said something along the lines of Mr Sunak representing an area including an army barracks and surely he should have understood how people value the military and remembrance, for example.

I agree with the OP about the lack of accountability for Boris Johnson, a man who suspended Parliament unlawfully, which I think is treason.

I thought Sunak was born, brought up and schooled in England. His language is English. He's not Asian!

Farage saying "our culture" was othering. Done by design.

I normally stay out debates about what politicians come out with, but on this occasion my gut reaction when I first heard what Farage said was that he deliberately chose his words for maximum harm. He does it all the time and then gaslights. But the harm is done, by design.

Farage is just dying for say Angela Rayner to call him a racist. Then it'll be all over the papers for a few days and he'll get to do the whole "Angela Rayner thinks that ordinary British people who just want a bit of respect for the D-Day veterans are all racists" bit. Nobody, least of all the Labour front bench, is going to fall into that trap with like 2 weeks to go till the election.

in some ways - the more you react to Farage the happier he is. His behaviour is all about grabbing attention for himself. Media wise we need to put him down sharply and firmly then ignore him, same kind of treatment as a gunman who shoots into a crowd.

YANBU - I agree Farage's comment was a dog whistle.

I am no fan of Sunak or the Tories but of course these comments are racist. There are a lot of racists who voted for Boris Johnson, another racist last time who Farage knows will gravitate towards him rather than vote for a brown person.

I thought the exact same thing.

If Sunak is white, Liz Trus wouldn’t have even had a chance!

And that’s. ok to say that.

What farage said wasn’t ok and was racist

I don't think Rishi left the DDay events early because he's of Indian extraction and doesn't "understand" British traditions and values, I think he's just one of those rich Tory posh boys who grew up with a silver spoon in his arse and hasn't got a modicum of common sense.

Please don't use language like that towards me. I wrote a thoughtful and considered post - in a calm and sympathetic manner -and you've just been aggressive and used vulgar language.

You are clearly angry at mr sunak and his colleagues but that is no reason to attack me.

All I said was we've all left formal events early when we've had a lot on our plates and he arranged a very well qualified representative.

That's no reason to start referring to my comments as parts of male genitals. Just say 'i disagree'. You surely don't respond to people in real life like that, who you've literally just come across in the street. Check yourself online like you would in real life.

Have a nice evening.

How dare you tell me to mind my mouth? @IvyIvyIvy. just who the hell do you think you are?

Excusing a terrible Tory PM (PMs) who have caused untold misery to millions, perfectly acceptable?
Calling you out on your pathetic bollocks, rude?

Pathetic.

Explain, please, why Rishi Sunak had more pressing matters to deal with than Zelensky, Biden and Macron?

You can’t. He didn’t. He is simply arrogant and disrespectful.

What do testicles have to do with this? Mind your mouth

IvyIvyIvy · Today 14:00
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I agree. It was an unfortunate photo at the end without him but aren't we all guilty of slipping away from formal events early if we have a lot on our plate”

What a load of bollocks. President Zelensky managed it. Guessing he has quite a lot on his plate. As does Biden, Macron…..

He also appears insincere and a hypocrite if he is heralding the worthiness of National Service for people that are not him one week and then seemingly having no patriotic stamina for the D day events.

Oh please - it's not about unfortunate photos and slipping away from a school awards ceremony! It's the most significant international memorial event this year, and it's to honour the fallen allies as well as commemorate their victory. The Tories have had no problem mobilising the history of Churchill and WW2 when it suits them and this would have shown Sunak on the world stage amongst world leaders - the advantage of being an incumbent. Instead he seems petty, disrespectful and politically ignorant.

Yeah I’m sure some Indian people didn’t care but that’s not all, and you can’t generalise either way. If you were going to play that game you could just as equally say there are Eastern Europeans who don’t care about anti-Black and anti-Asian sentiment.

and some will even happily join in. I was watching a BBC documentary shortly after Brexit and a stunned polish woman said she was told by her British friends that as a Polish person she wasn’t the sort of immigrant they and other people were unhappy about. so she was shocked at Brexit.

I have no doubt her friends clarified what “type” of immigrant was a problem and she apparently didn’t have an issue with that.

And some (not all!) Ukrainians refugees have complained about some areas in Britain being too “brown” or “ black.

But what does that prove? That everyone from Eastern Europe deserves to be targeted by Farage or the whole community doesn’t care about racism etc? Certainly not!

And for balance I must hasten to add I know many Eastern Europeans who love other cultures they encounter here , and are very anti-racist.

I doubt many of us are guilty of causing great offence to D Day veterans, no.

I disagree. Honestly, I am not personally offended by the PM having sloped off early from the D-Day commemorations. On one level, I couldn't really care less whether he was there or not. But Sunak is not just like the rest of us who might happen to have a lot on our plates - he is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and he should be aware that in matters of politics and diplomacy, optics and perception are everything.

I think this was a massive misstep that casts serious doubt on his personal and political judgment. It was a major unforced error. Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with his patriotism or his ethnicity or any of the other stupid shit that Farage and his racist cronies will try to make it about, but it does have everything to do with the way in which he, like a succession of Tory PMs before him, will persistently put the narrow interests of his own party over and above what is required of him by the country in his role as Prime Minister.

Of course, his advisers catastrophically failed him as well. They let him down by not warning him that he needed to stay. But ultimately the man has a mind of his own and he needs to take responsibility for this mistake. We need leaders with good judgement, and he has shown that his is lacking.

I agree. It was an unfortunate photo at the end without him but aren't we all guilty of slipping away from formal events early if we have a lot on our plate? He turned up and made a speech and did the bit he was formally requested to do and had a capable former prime minister step in when he left.

If it's any consolation, I very much like Rishi on a personal level. He seems like a clever, hard-working and nice man and of course he took on the poisoned chalice after Johnson and Truss. I'm white, btw.