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

[Carowe]

I’m half Indian. There is something incredibly unsavoury going on imo. I’m not a fan of the Tories or Sunak but Farage’s comments in tandem with the insane media storm over Rishi leaving the D-day event early seems racist. The argument that Rishi is not patriotic feels like a dog whistle ie he is not British enough/ a white prime minister would have stayed. All this despite 90,000 Indian soldiers dying in WW2 (I won’t even get into the millions of deaths from famine caused by Brits ransacking India for war supplies).

How many indiscretions did we let Boris get away with?

Very uncomfortable for me.

I completely agree. I dislike Rishi but when watching the BBC debate I said to DH, 'Farage is essentially calling Rishi not British'. It wasn't even dog whistle racism, just racism.

David Lammy for Home Secretary!

I am also half south Asian

We know exactly what Farage was getting at yesterday he is a racist what he said had racist undertones

I am very concerned about Reform too. The Tory party had too many with similar views but there are many good Tory politicians who are dedicated to their role I may not agree with their political stance but they are not hell bent on dividing the country in the way Reform are

I think all parties need to unite against Reform

I hadn't heard the Farage comments, but agree they do appear racist and said in such a way he can deny that they are.

However I do think that Corbyn would have been given exactly as much grief over leaving ceremony early so I'm not sure that the wider media coverage and criticism is a result of racism.

GB News presenter Darren “crafty wank” Grimes is now sharing AI generated images of Keir Starmer appearing in ways which target all the kinds of minority group people right-wing freakshows are frightened of, including Indian people, muslim people, gay people and apparently women, using stereotypes of course.

Grimes appears to support Reform /
Farage, and is using fake images as propaganda to stoke fears among his more
gullible / prejudiced followers and viewers.

Much of the so-called “legitimate concerns” are born of exaggerations and fear-stoking by propagandists like Grimes.

Usually the way with Farage!

He's racist and his comments were as well. Are you his mum?

Farage will say anything he thinks will boost his election prospects. His comments have been criticised by all other parties. Rishi's ethnicity has hardly ever been discussed during his time as PM which speaks volumes and something we should be proud of.

Farage's comments are disgusting, and a clear dog whistle. Please don't think that he (or anyone else saying things like that) speak for the majority of this country.

Farage is a racist and his party attracts racists. Anyone thinking of voting for him needs to take a long hard look at their beliefs.

Rishi Sunak is an absolute idiot and I am astounded he didn't see the D Day event as a huge opportunity, given the people he's trying to appeal to. He is incredibly bad at politics. But also... the media has it in for him now. He's getting a metaphorical kicking because everyone knows the Tories have lost this election, and badly. Sunak being crap is the main story now, and everyone is waiting to see the latest gaff. It'll all be forgotten in four weeks and he'll be a footnote in history, never to be seen again.

@brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr so if people have those concerns they are all far right? I find quite a few things highlighted very concerning. The denial may as well in 4 years have Farage as leading in the polls. I would be happy to revisit these posts. See European elections for some clue.

People don't realise there is a whole team behind Rishi - behind all the leaders in fact - who I'm sure are heavily involved in the scheduling of events during this campaign. It won't have been a 'Rishi' decision alone, it will have been a team decision, surely?

So to blame it on his heritage, speaks volumes to Farage's mentality - racism undertones in whatever way he can.

Absolutely spot on.

Reform is a racist party getting far too much airtime from the right-wing media, they don't set the tone for everyone

Yes, I don't know why the media are so mesmerised by him. It's not just the right-wing media, the BBC give him far too much airtime. As a comparison, do people even know who the leader of the Green party in England and Wales is? I'd have to look it up! Why do Reform get all the attention?

Of course, it was thinly veiled racism.

Unfortunately, there's racism on all sides of politics, remember when Kwasi Kwarteng and Suella Braverman were called coconuts by people on the left?

The further you go, left or right, the more racists there are.

You think under a Labour government everyone will turn into a gay muslim woman and dress in rainbows, and Keir Starmer will transition and start wearing vaguely Indian women’s clothing ?

What these images do is tell gullible people what to be afraid of.

”If you see a muslim, be afraid they’re coming to get you”

”If you see a gay person, transgender person or pride flags, be afraid, they’re coming to get you”

”If you see someone wearing Indian style clothing, be afraid they’re coming to get you”

”If you see Keir Starmer, be afraid, he is making all these people come to get you”

It tells people to be afraid of minorities, and is insidiously racist and homophobic.

I am hoping we are ahead of the European election trend rather than the other way round - ie we had our silly populist right wing moment when "we" voted for Brexit and then for Boris, and are now moving back to centre/left of centre.

Hope I am not proved wrong :(

Edited: it's worth looking at a map of the vote in Germany. What was West Germany voted for centre right parties - it was the old East that voted for AfD. It's important to look at WHY people are voting that way and what the government is doing to do deal with it, rather than just calling them racists like people who had concerns here about immigration from the EU.

You obviously didn’t see the posts on here(now deleted) that said he was Indian and didn’t understand our culture.

Agree

Ironically he behaved exactly like the Reform/ERG little Englanders would have done- treated the contribution on the Americans, French and Ukranians, other allies ( and the former Empire soldiers, who, as you said, died in their thousands) as not as important as the British.

There will be a team, but ultimately it's his decision. If he'd said he was staying and insisted on it, that's what would have happened. They wouldn't have bundled him back onto the plane.

But yeah, of course blaming it on Rishi's ethnicity speaks volumes about what a turd Farage is. He made a stupid call because he's bad at politics, which is nothing to do with his skin colour.

The sad thing is a great many of the population are racist- if they were not they wouldn't be voting Reform because their whole basis and modus operandi is about immigration - have you seen Farage discussing other policies in great detail and where the budget cuts are coming from to fund tax cuts etc -

I think Boris and sunak are equally fucking useless . Neither really give a shit about the average person in this country .. Boris imo more because he was such a fantasist who believed his own crap , sunak because he lives such a privileged life has no comprehension of the real world for most ..

farage will bring out the racists sadly .. they do exist just need someone like farage to give them a platform.

What Farage said was racist. But why is anyone surprised? He is a racist, he will always be a racist. That being said Rishi Sunak deserves what he got (apart from the racism) for leaving the D Day events early. They mattered, a lot. The veterans matter, a lot, and he totally disrespected them.

KS or the Labour Party would make the genuine concerns worst. I said this in my first post. I would not visit those sites and do not know who that person is. You do for some reason and I also do not listen to Farage but people have the right to speak out without being gaslighted. Keep ignoring the issues as in your echo chamber see it as not the majority cares about immigration, trans laws and crime at your own peril.

OP, I sympathise with you and also agree that Farage's comments were a dog whistle.

I think the best way to deal with stupid people like Farage is to see them for who they really are. Stupid. And as a pp said, ignore them.

I think race is a low hanging fruit for racists because that's the first thing they go to when they want to get a rise out of someone that is different from them. A little bit like bullies in the playground at school who target children who look different from them. If you can't punch them, you just have to ignore them.

Leaving the dd commemorations early was very wrong, it's still in living memory for many people I know. It's got nothing to do with his ethnicity, I would be equally critical if he was white! I can't stand garage either. My politics is left leaning anyway so I wasn't going to vote for the Cons even before this debacle. Rishi's issue (and Boris too) is that they are aloof, don't really understand how normal people leave, and what normal people care about. Boris getting a donor to pay to redecorate and Carrie complaining about the John Lewis look of number 10 (what's wrong with John Lewis!!!) not racist, rich people not getting it.