Rishi Sunak went without Sky TV so his parents could send him to private school

[number10bus]

Honestly this has really annoyed me, apart from the fact it's such crap - he came from a family where his parents were a GP and a pharmacist, it's like he's literally thought of the most working class stereotype and applied that. He's so out of touch and I don't know why this one has annoyed me so much but it really has.

I'm not much older than our prime minister and we didn't have one either, or holidays and not much in the way of any luxury items and guess what my parents couldn't afford to send me to private school despite them working very hard too.

My heart bleeds for him. Jeez,he really is totally clueless.

Well he is 44 now so he is able to do a bit of reflection.

Quite! In the last few months in particular, the gloves have really come off wrt comments made about disabled people and a complete unwillingness to even bother to understand what ordinary people go through on a day to day basis. And this is why they get called The Nasty Party.

'Rishi said that his parents came to this country with nothing. I don’t think it’s true as they later were able to afford private education for him.
And nothing wrong with them not being poor at the first place but why did he pretend otherwise?'

Exactly. It's nonsense to suggest that they came with nothing. They were very well educated; a doctor and a pharmacist. Coming from Kenya, they were clearly from well off families there or they would not have gained these qualifications. The Asian community in Kenya tend to be pretty rich anyway, some extremely wealthy.
He's constructed a 'rags to riches because of lots of hard work' story which is rubbish and it is that many people find irritating. People can see that it is lies constructed by his PR machine.

Just as irritating is the 'I care about the NHS, I know all about it because my dad was a GP, etc, etc'
Then you look at this clip where an upset GP is speaking to him, his rude assistant says something like 'you spend more time on holiday that you do in the surgery, luv' and he guffaws with laughter. It's clear that he has no respect whatsoever.

Anathema on MN I know but I've voted Tory every election since I could vote apart from Johnson because I couldn't in good faith vote for him as PM.
Rishi is clueless and it's embarrassing. I won't vote Tory this time but as yet I've no idea who I will be voting for.

Yes many my family are the same. A lot were Tory party members but quit in horror at the Brexit fiasco /Johnson

I think the party has a long way to go before it attracts sensible people back to it

I'm a floating voter and believe the country needs different types of politics at different times, but right now it's never been clearer we need a change. This current bunch of Tories are astonishingly arrogant. They've just sat back and let the rivers be flooded with sewage and focused on chucking money and legislative concessions to their mates /donors

'Rishi said that his parents came to this country with nothing.

But never mentions his grandfather worked for the Inland Revenue for 30 years and got an MBE for it in the 80s....

This^
its about being completely out of touch and not being clever enough to understand the reality. He obviously has good memory and is able to recite big answers but the little details shows his true nature.

"He came from prep school with a thirst for knowledge, he studied PPE at Lincoln College that's where Sky, caught his eye"

Touché Jarvis 🤣

The issue is trying to force priveleged people into making these ridiculous statements. It's like a massive forced "gotcha" and is really quite pathetic.

What matters is his empathy which anyone can have even if they haven't been in an impoverished situation. Whether Rishi has empathy or not is unclear but this isn't a valuable way of interrogating our leaders.

I agree that such interviews aren't productive but it's been going on a long time - only need to watch Yes Minister repeats to see how little has changed! The interviewer is looking for a 'gotcha'/soundbite and the politician is trying to stick to a script which usually ends up making them sound as if they can't think for themselves.

Empathy is important, yes - and Rishi demonstrated his complete lack of it by talking bollocks about Sky TV.

Totally disagree. It's not a forced 'gotcha'.
The man has a choice about how to say and how to portray himself and he chooses to tell very obvious lies to try to pretend that he is just a regular guy when he is not. Most people would have far more respect for him if he stopped pretending to be something he is not.

Secondly, anyone with eyes and ears can see that, not only is he utterly out of touch with 99.9% of the population that he serves but he is also utterly devoid of empathy. Frankly, none of the prominent Tory cabinet members since 2019 have any empathy whatsoever. However, some of them do a better job than Rishi of pretending that they do. He reminds me of a public school boy giving a speech that was written for him by someone else. He seems totally out of his depth and immature.

Yes. Absolutely right! AND it was HIM that talked about sacrifices first. It’s on his X blurb about himself. It’s HIS bullshit narrative that he was then, rightly, pressed to qualify. Honestly, I despair at the lack of critical thinking and am so worried about the amount of disinformation and outside meddling. We need to really read and watch things ourselves, not rely on SM and the press. Aaaaand breathe. Sorry. Rant over. I feel better now!

It was HIM that raised the ‘sacrifices’ his parents made. It’s on HIS blurb about himself as an MP. It’s HIS bullshit narrative to make him seem less out of touch and privileged than he is. He was then pressed to qualify what sacrifices. He couldn’t. Because it’s bullshit. His wealth isn’t an issue UNLESS it means he is so out of touch that he harms people with decisions based on his very narrow world view. He did nothing to reassure me that this isn’t the case.

The interviewer asked a very important question. As someone richer than the king how does he keep in touch with the problems that people face.

HE said then about the sacrifices his parents made. The interviewer then didn’t let him just fudge that and pressed him to name the sacrifices. He could have said ‘we lived in a one bed flat’ or ‘we lived in corned beef hash’ but he couldn’t because they were wealthy. And he couldn’t name an actual sacrifice- Because it’s a LIE. He had a very privileged beginning.

Which is fine IF he’s got insight and he can competently do the job.

The only answer I would respect would be;

‘Do you know what, I’m very aware that my life has been extremely privileged compared with the vast majority of people in the world. I have been enormously blessed and I’m so grateful. I do worry that I won’t truly understand what it’s like to grow up in dire poverty and I can’t help that. What I can do is listen and learn as best I can. I want all children in this country to have …’

Honestly, it’s not rocket science. He’s an idiot if he doesn’t get that what he said was not only tone deaf but deeply hurtful and insulting to many. I don’t want that kind of idiot at the helm.

HE said then about the sacrifices his parents made. The interviewer then didn’t let him just fudge that and pressed him to name the sacrifices. He could have said ‘we lived in a one bed flat’ or ‘we lived in corned beef hash’ but he couldn’t because they were wealthy. And he couldn’t name an actual sacrifice- Because it’s a LIE. He had a very privileged beginning.

Or if he had said that his parents worked all the hours God sends to earn that wealth and as a consequence family time was sacrificed, that is something that many could understand.

I laughed at this.

And I this ...

The Assisted Places scheme was still in force while he was at school; he would have fitted the profile of many of the students that it supported.

I think when he talks about his family coming here with nothing he means his grandparents - not that I presume they were on the bones of their arse when they arrived. They came to the UK from Kenya where the grandfather was an accountant before working for the Kenyan government. Not chased out of Uganda as someone else mentioned.

The whole family moved to the UK in 1966 and Rishi's parents went to uni here in the UK. The family were well pretty well established in this country by the time Rishi was born.

Exactly, there's coming here with actually "nothing"

And there's coming here with what a public school boy with a billionaire spouse and a private pool so ambitious it required the local electricity grid to be upgraded thinks is "nothing"

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/mar/12/rishi-sunak-has-electricity-grid-upgraded-to-heat-his-private-pool

He would not have fitted the profile for the type of student they supported. His dad was a GP and his mum owned a pharmacy. They were both high earners!

@rainingsnoring - 50% of assisted places students were from middle-class families like his. It's one of the key weaknesses of the scheme; that it didn't hit its actual target group terribly well.

theconversation.com/the-state-has-helped-poor-pupils-into-private-schools-before-did-it-work-70222

Thanks @Lemonsole. I'm sure that a lot of candidates on the scheme were from middle class families (the ones I know were) but they were not rich, middle class families because there was an income limit.