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'm sorry that you're feeling uncomfortable, OP. You're right that Farage's comments were racist, and the same tone has been reflected in much of the media coverage. I share your disappointment in the fact that others haven't been quicker to call this out.

Sunak's decision not to stay for the D-Day event showed very poor political judgement, and it's fine to criticise him for this, but there has definitely been an undercurrent in some of the criticism that is motivated by race, and that has been quite horrible to witness.

There are many, many reasons to have a go at Sunak. His race isn't one of them.

I agree with you OP. The onslaught of histrionics in the media over Rishi's D-Day behaviour has seen multiple commentators utterly losing their minds about his alleged unpatriotic sins.

I am the opposite of a fan of the Conservatives but the depth and breadth of the criticism levelled at Sunak over this has struck me as racist and nationalist.

You don't need to scratch too deeply beneath the surface of many rightwingers to find a bigot.

I find it very bizarre that many of the people throwing shade at Sunak for failing to venerate anti-Nazis sufficiently also support Reform, a party that Hitler would have approved of.

Their cognitive dissonance is underpinned by a racist worldview.

Many Reform candidates absolutely are racists and conspiracy theorists. The most extreme ones were deselected thank goodness, but plenty of them still continue to blame minorities for every issue under the sun.

It’s purest distilled irony that you consider me to be in an echo chamber yet it’s me who is aware of the wider discourse and the racist & homophobic propaganda being shared to promote Reform.

What issues would Starmer make “worst” and how ?

Both my parents are Indian migrants. They are parochial, xenophobic and racist (but not towards Caucasian people). Racism isn't a privileged of the white majority unfortunately. Neither is ignorance.

I loathe Rishi. He represents everything I dislike about the 'pull the ladder up behind them' mentality of a lot of Indian migrants and their offspring in this country.
Some of the worst comments about 'benefit scroungers' etc I've heard have been from second generation migrants. While polishing their Range Rovers.

The media flurry may well have racist undertones but far, far worse will have been said behind Rishi's back in the good old inclusive House of Commons. He'll have ignored that in his desperate career scramble so I'm sure he can live with a few negative media stories.

I’ve had exactly the same thoughts as you OP (I’m not of Indian heritage).

I also don’t think what he did was that bad. He said he attended the British commemorations, and he left early- he didn’t not attend. . Its a media whipped up storm over not very much.

I sympathise OP but FFS Farage was just out to get his name in the papers.

That man really is a totally worthless piece of shit.

Yeah some quite racists stuff flying around. Tbh he should have probably stayed but I think it’s got more to do with a lack of political nous than his heritage.

We have an election soon, is anyone really going to be basing their vote on whether Sunak stayed for the entire ceremony or not? I’m not sure people care as much as the papers make out, they may say “oh yeah he should have hung around” but I doubt people are investing loads of emotion into it.

All this frothing is merely Pastor Niemöller being shown to be true.

Especially the bit about when they come for me.

I was saying to DH last night that Farage should be called out as a racist for his comments. I don't know why other politicians haven't done. We all know what he was implying

Of course they are. which is why I do not bother to check their silly exaggerated stuff. However, they may well go up. After all Brexit did happened and it was a shocked surprise.

May be tell me how Labour would take care of everyone, each side of society. Specially middle class, women rights, mass lower educated immigration and crime. The policies are out there for all to see. Conservatives are bad and Labour is another kind of malaise. In my view much worse. Calling for a tax on private education as the only country in Europe do place them as extremist and as populist as Farage. My humble view.

His big problem is that it went down so badly with the vote he's been trying to pitch for. The sort of person who approves of the national service proposals is likely going to be more alert than the average voter to any perceived disrespect of war veterans.

Obviously the large majority of the population wouldn't be voting Tory anyway. But he's pissed off many of those who'd be considering it.

Everyone knows that Reform are racist.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

and WW1.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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