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

Exaclty. Boris was all show. All he cared about was himself and how he could make money once he left office to pay for all his ex wives and kids.

Rishi is the opposite which is better, but not when it comes to anything to do with veterans. That is the bread and butter of the Conservative Party and that fact that he did not know that just shows how out of touch he is with the party and the traditional voters.

I don’t know. Personally, I think Sunak and his disgusting “Stop the Boats” mantra racist.

Anyone who had left the D-Day commemoration early would have been subject to the same treatment. Rightfully so. It’s incredibly meaningful to millions in the UK, including the hundreds of thousands of descendants of the selfless, brave Indian troops you highlighted.

Boris also, for all the other stupid and venal stuff he did, was good enough at politicking to understand that you just do not do what Rishi did. If nothing else, the opportunity for statesmanlike photos should've persuaded him. It would've done Boris.

I don't know who his advisers are, but I assume some of them are white English, so they are also as fault.

He ignored all advice which was to stay.

This.

The criticisms are absolutely not overblown. It was both disrespectful and incredibly stupid. And Farage et al have taken the opportunity to be racist.

I don't know who his advisers are, but I assume some of them are white English, so they are also as fault.

He did a very stupid thing and so was rightly criticised. It has nothing to do with his colour or heritage.

The only reason Boris seemed to get away with things was because he was pals with the editors of the right wing papers. The left wing papers and the rest of the media criticised him as much as they are criticising Sunak now.

Two things can be true at the same time:

By the same token, Reform could be a racist company (it is), but at the same time have a really good transport policy.

Two things can be true at the same time:

1. Rishi Sunak should absolutely not have left the D-Day celebrations early.

2. Racist scumbags like Farage are using that poor decision as an excuse to make thinly-veiled racist comments.

Rishi Sunak deserves condemnation, but obviously not racism, since his terrible decision had absolutely nothing to do with his Asian heritage.

About that green card ...

I saw a discussion of it in a US legal group a while back, suggesting that he had lied to get it. Basically they should only ever be issued to people who intend to live and work in the US. Not to some job hopping politician who can't work out how rain works.

I think he had to return it.

Me too. IMO a lot of the bile directed at Sunak is very thinly veiled racism, and I’m no fan of the Tories. The D-Day episode has been blown up out of all proportion for electioneering reasons. Our head of state (Charles) remained throughout - Rishi is ‘just’ PM.

I don't think you understand.

"Tech bro" has nothing to do with any skills - quite the reverse. A "tech bro" is someone who has worked out how to make an obscene amount of other people in tech. Like the outsourced-offshored programmers paid in cents whilst companies like Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google are worth more than 180 countries on earth.

I do think people have the impression that he has one foot of the door and isn't very committed to the UK. I have that too tbh but that is because he is very rich and has a green card.

He’s many things but a ‘tech bro’ isn’t one of them. He may want to be one because he sees how well Nick Clegg has done for himself at Facebook, however, he doesn’t even know how to use WhatsApp.

His fawning over Elon Musk was also embarrassing. He was clearly trying to set himself up with a post PM job in America.

Oh wait even worse - just to correct my post above it was Boris Johnson who made the remarks about Obama’s Kenyan heritage and Farage backed him up. They’re definitely cut from the same cloth 😂 what a crazy 8 years we’ve had in British politics that the former PM and other cabinet leaders often sound like Farage eh?

https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/22/boris-johnson-barack-obama-kenyan-eu-referendum

Sunak disrespected the Indian soldier who fought and died as much as he disrespected any white soldiers. They were all British.

He's a tech bro when all is said and done. He's a member of the global elite, a true citizen of nowhere. He couldn't give a shiny shit about Britain. He had no business being our Prime Minister, he wasn't elected to the job. Colour doesn't come into it.

Yes, I agree with this and when you do see the far right winning European seats, it is all quite alarming. My Grandad never even felt any malice towards the regular German soldiers firing at him on the beach as he told me that they were like him and were doing as they were commanded to do. I’m not sure where Reform’s intolerance and perspective on things tallies with everyone who was actually part of the D day landings, it certainly doesn’t tally with my Grandads view point.

Yeah there definitely was racism involved. And that’s certainly how a lot of frothy daily mail readers gleefully took it too. You only need to read the comments on X or Daily mail to see this. So at the very least it was a dog whistle. Farage is a smart man, he knew what he was saying and the impact it would have.

But Farage has form for this. It’s no surprise at all.

I mean he said something similar about Obama’s Kenyan heritage implying he had an ancestral grudge against the Brits or something if I remember correctly.

Yes I feel for you OP. I don’t disagree it was a stupid move on his part but the comments after have been very uncomfortable. I’m sure he experienced racism on his way to being PM - that is not ok. The comments now are not ok. The media providing a platform for these views to become acceptable is not ok (I am a big fan of free speech but) we are like frogs slowly boiling and not realising it.

I should add, I was listening to Any Answers on Radio 4 and there was a mix of feelings about this but some are definitely altering their vote.

and WW1.

There is a hall devoted to them in Birmingham Museum. Very moving. When Britain called, the Empire responded.

I don’t think that is true actually. Many people feel very strongly about it as many people have relatives that fought in the Second World War. My Grandad landed on Gold beach and D day landings are something my Dad told us about and not to forget the sacrifice. However, my Grandad was brave but believe it or not wasn’t relishing landing on those beaches, he had no choice! He was certainly not jingoistic and wouldn’t expect people to vote on this issue alone. I never intended on voting Tory but the hypocrisy of Sunak banging on about National Service (which would impact my DC) and he can’t even commit to a party well it smacks of hypocrisy! He is son insincere as well, he was a better Chancellor than a PM he hasn’t got enough charisma.

I understand your discomfort,

but, I'm a white Brit, I was annoyed he left early because he is our PM and therefore should have been there to pay the nations respects.

It never occurred to me that he left because he didn't understand!! because he is Indian, that's rubbish!

He was born in Southampton, he's as British as I am, and 2.5Million Indian soldiers served in ww2.

No, he left because he is fighting an election and had other fish to fry, he made a bad call, race doesn't enter into it, although racists will attempt to insert it.

Anybody with a basic historical knowledge knows the Indian army made a massive contribution during WW2. Throw that back at any racist comments. Sunak is just a tin eared politician and not representative of any ethnic grouping.

I think you are right to be wary, it is insidious and we should all be mindful of what happened in the European elections.

That's their appeal. Much as the old UKIP was. It allows people to pretend they aren't racist at all because "it's a proper political party" (it isn't) and therefore they can't be racists at all.

Much in the past when people joined the NF because they agreed with their position on eel farming in Sardinia.