How will you feel if Kemi wins?

[britneyisfree]

I don't support the Conservative party. I also don't think she can win.

However.... I just got a little thrill of joy when I imagined her winning. I have never before been able to imagine a black woman with braids being Prime Minister.

Any one else?

I'm so disappointed. I don't follow things closely, and thought Kemi was a good thing. Clearly I didn't know enough about her- your words are an eye opener.

That said, I don't think having an academic and a GP as parents makes you in the same category privilege wise as most of the Houses of Parliament.

@picklemewalnuts most members of the Houses of Parliament are Lords so you are right there.

However amongst the Houses of Commons compared to lots of MPs she is privileged.

This is absolutely why the Tories love her. I can see she will do very well with them by continuing to spout her poisonous rhetoric.

I'm white. I certainly don't love Kemi. On the contrary.

KB's dad was a GP and her mum a university professor before she went to Nigeria for secondary school. Apart from the esteem of those professions in the UK, the exchange rate of their salaries to the local Naira meant that KB would've lived as an Upper Middle class Nigerian; ie drivers, cooks, maids, private tutors, foreign holidays and to top it up a British accent which would be the equivalent of the poshest English accent appearing on the scene in ..... where ever.

The purchasing power of a £ for example at the moment is about N740. You can hire a maid with no days off and on duty 24hrs a day, no minimum wage, not protections whatsoever for £25 a month. So you can image what it would have been like for her then. Her thinking is typical of many middle class Nigerians living in Nigeria up until George Floyd brought racism to the forefront of discourse even in countries where there's only one race. However, this doesn't excuse her. She knows very well that she is being deceptive. Even her year group brought it up with her as did black Conservatives. She continues to deny the majority's experiences to dangerous consequences. I'm a Yoruba girl too and would love to cheer her on to be PM but I am conflicted because she is the UK's Candice Owens and just as racism was emboldened during Trumps era it will be so during KB's if she wins and that's too much to risk.

On the other hand I know she can't become PM on the banner of fighting racism as the majority of voters will feel threatened by it.

So did a parent go with her to Nigeria?
Sounds as though her experience certainly isn't typical.
Is she really a total wash out though?
Better her than Rishi, Penny or Liz?

It would be a shame to judge her more harshly than the other candidates, for not being all she could have been.

Lots of weird ideas about kemi here:

She was born in the uk but to best of my knowledge did not live here until 16.

Her parents were a GP and a professor. High status careers yes but also poorly paid ones up till today especially relative to the uk. She does mention that she was middle class in Nigeria.

She came here because her family went broke as lots of peoples families do, which is why she came here. Lots of people use their British passports as get out of jail free cards in Nigeria.

She doesn’t deny racism, what she says is that the disparities between different migrant groups can’t be reduced simply to racism as that doesn’t add up. Which seems logical if you observe the data and peoples behaviour

Although the knob head bas gone and said something stupid about immigration to appeal to the Tory right so the good work which could have helped people during the long term will likely be discredited

Her parents were a GP and a professor. High status careers yes but also poorly paid ones up till today especially relative to the uk

Compared to bankers yes they were poorly paid, but they were not poorly paid compared to the rest of employees in the 1990s.

@picklemewalnuts this is black MN so no-one is going to post about the lies that the others have said e.g. Truss said about her own school, Mordaunt about Turkey and the EU

She's out anyway...

Right of course. But given the choices are as they are, is Kemi the best (albeit not perfect) bet for women, especially women of colour?

I was inclined to think so, but am not sure having read this thread. I just don't want a 'better than the others' candidate (if that's what she is) to lose out. They are all problematic.

Thank goodness for that 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

This.

She's gained a lot of traction out of this contest so no doubt there will be a big ministerial post for her if she and her team play their cards right with whomever they throw support behind.

Yes, I suspect she knew she wouldn't win but is angling for a Cabinet post as a result so that she can bide her time and try for the leadership again in 5-10 years.

I agree, I'd be surprised if she didn't get a Cabinet post out of this. Given her stance on immigration, my guess is they'll give her Home Secretary, so she can carry on the "good work" Priti Patel started.

She was never going to win anyway. They would not have allowed it. How sad that from Tom's supporters only 1 voted for her! The rest voted for the two white ladies despite the fact that they are both liars and terrible politicians - and some of the votes went to Rishi.

I did feel she was down playing her true feelings on race in order to appeal to everyone else. Britain isn't ready for a black person to be PM - I don't think they are ready for Rush either. They will vote for Penny - who is just awful IMO.

Perhaps - but I hope she ditches those stupid policies on Rwanda - she has to be better than that.

Perhaps - but I hope she ditches those stupid policies on Rwanda - she has to be better than that.

The very people she's relying on to support her think the Rwanda policy is one of the best policies to have ever come out of any government. Her next steps wouldn't be to abolish that policy but to create more under the guise of supporting Africa and protecting our borders.

If Rishi were white he'd absolutely walk this premiership. They might be able to convince the tory members to get behind him as he's ostensibly just like them. But then taking the risk of putting him to the vote of the electorate would be a huge risk. A lot people can cope with kids going hungry, the NHS on its knees, creating more foodbanks, creating more billionaires. But they'd stop at the idea the person who'd be at the helm would be an ethnic minority. Some old tropes are very hard to shake. Badenoch, Sunak, Bailey, Kwarteng et al can be provided with everything they need to sing and dance all they like but to ask the country to make them the lead is a whole different kettle of fish.

@darmaka What people are saying is that Tom’s supporters voted tactically. They want Rishi to face liz because they think she’ll be easier to beat.

I hope so - Liz is awful

@britneyisfree
Ive always felt Kemi got the job to prove how unracist the tories are; and I see her as a very misguided mouthpiece taking the job in an slightly off-kilter situation. If they were riding high she'd not have stood a chance
She's very much the hectoring type and likes to belittle people calling them idle by claiming she got where she is by pure hard work and there's no racism anywhere
Also conveniently she married a very wealthy man who seems to know who wears the trousers
One thing though I'd really like to see her meet and greet trump;
Now that could be interesting.....

@britneyisfree
Am late to the discussion so please excuse the timelapse
She will not, I feel ever win an election
She's been put in place to caretake.the position of leader whilst the tory party juggles itself against reform and attempts to show how "on point" they are and not the "nasty party" anymore by having a non-white "leader "
Also if things ever did pick up brilliantly for the tories
They'd oust her
And revert to her opposite