Oh Dear Looks Like Labour Are Rattled......

[ToraToraTora]

....and what happens then?
https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/local-news/nottingham-mp-deletes-tweet-saying-7743452
...Yep the nasties come out of the wood work. To stand any chance of getting into no 10 Rodders you need to purge the nasties.

[perseverer]

Read the tweet and see if you think it is a reasonable comment, considering the mp who made it is second generation British Indian

[ToraToraTora]

I did, she only said what she said because he's not Labour.

[sunny-dave]

Yep - ignore the (misleading) headline & read what was actually said.

I think the Labour Whips probably only read the headline and then did more harm than good in getting heavy-handed with the MP over a perfectly reasonable and well made point.

[youngmafbog]

Labour do have form on this though ("The wrong sort of brown" wasnt it?) so she should have known better than to bring race into it.

//considering the mp who made it is second generation British Indian//

So what, it was non white MP?'s who have used the term 'wrong sort of brown'.

[perseverer]

Youngmafbog, I don't know what you are referring to, but in any case I don't see how it is relevant to this specific instance and I don't see how she could have said that the new PM was not typical or representative of British Indians or Asians without mentioning his race.

[Untitled]

what the tweet actually said as written in your link...

""Rishi Sunak as prime minister isn't a win for Asian representation. He's a multi-millionaire who, as chancellor, cut taxes on bank profits while overseeing the biggest drop in living standards since 1956. Black, white or Asian: if you work for a living, he is not on your side.""

does not look unreasonable to me

if you think this is "nasty" then i cannot imagine what you must think about your own party

[New Judge]

//...does not look unreasonable to me//

It does to me. If you don't like what he's done, you don't like what he's done. Doesn't matter whether he is Asian, black, brown or blue. To qualify as a "good Asian", does he only have to do things which are beneficial to those who work for a living (which could include people who are paid £1m a year)?

[Untitled]

it's a legitimate position for a political opponent to take. Her point is that she thinks his policies will do a great deal of harm to the community he represents... there is nothing "nasty" about that.

[Spicerack]

Silly girl. Rishi's appointment is a victory for all downtrodden, struggling immigrant families.
And a salutary lesson for the Neanderthals who refused to praise diversity.

[New Judge]

// Her point is that she thinks his policies will do a great deal of harm to the community he represents.//

Does he only represent members of the Asian community then? Apart from being the Prime Minister, he is the MP for Richmond in Yorkshire. In that constituency, 96.9% of the electorate identify as White and only 1.5% as Asian. Are suggesting he only represents that 1.5%. And are you also suggesting that he can only represent people that share his ethnicity?

[Untitled]

no newjudge i am not

but there is a lot of chatter online about what a positive thing his selection is for the asian community… and this asian mp is taking issue with that because she considers his policies damaging to that community (and others) despite the fact that he does represent it.

i appreciate you disagree but you’re not a political opponent of sunak… she is and it’s a legitimate point of view for a person in that position to take

[Untitled]

for what it’s worth i think it’s safe to assume she also thinks his policies won’t be good for his constituents… who it seems based on their history would vote for a rock if it wore a blue rosette

[Gromit]

It was not nasty, it was her opinion.

Boris Johnson was white and male, but he definitely never represented me. Truss being a woman PM wasn’t representative of all women in the UK.

Sunak being our first Asian leader is a mile stone and a good thing. But that does not make him a spokesperson for all asians or like them. A unique set of circumstances have made him PM, and most asians will not share those.

[naomi24]

^that to untitled.

[naomi24]

^Wrong thread.

[New Judge]

OK, let's make it less complicated. This is what I don't get:

//...she thinks his policies will do a great deal of harm to the community he represents//

What community does he represent?

[Untitled]

his constituency and less directly the community he is from

[New Judge]

//his constituency...//

So why mention his ethnicity then? His constituents are more than 96% white. He is not. His critic suggests (or at least, suggested, since she's subsequently deleted the post) that because Mr Sunak had amassed a few quid, that his promotion to PM "isn't a win for Asian representation." Why isn't it. He has shown that in the UK one's ethnicity is no bar to success (in both business and politics). So what has she got against Mr Sunak? Can only unsuccessful deadbeats and derelicts "represent" the Asian community? If so, why should that be? Many of the country's most successful businesses are run by people of an Asian heritage.

I believe Ms Whittome is confusing her understandable hatred of success with her less understandable contention that only Asian people can represent Asian people properly.

[Untitled]

i believe it was you who mentioned his constituency newjudge

there is a separation between the areas MPs are selected to represent and the broader topic of representation in politics - i.e. the diversity of our political leaders.

I suspect you don't care very much about the latter (and lots of people don't!) but you are surely aware that it exists even if you don't care much for it. Lots of people have claimed that Sunak's selection is a good thing for British-Asians because for the first time they've seen someone like them become Prime Minister... this MP is disagreeing with that for reasons said above...

it isn't that complicated and it certainly isn't nasty

[New Judge]

//i believe it was you who mentioned his constituency newjudge//

Yes I did because I’m still trying to get to the bottom of this:

//…and this asian mp is taking issue with that because she considers his policies damaging to **that community** (and others) despite the fact that he does represent it.//

What community? If it’s his constituency his ethnicity has nothing whatsoever to do with that representation. He is of a different ethnicity to 96% of his constituents. If it's the country as a whole it still has nothing to do with it because only around 7% of the electorate is Asian. Why isn’t his appointment to the highest office a “win for Asian representation”? Will only certain types of Asians provide that win? If so, what type?

//…and it certainly isn't nasty.//

It is. Let’s cut to the chase, Ms Whittome’s dislike of Mr Sunak and/or his policies has nothing to do with his ethnicity. It is to do with the fact that he is a successful businessman who has made a lot of money. It simply the politics of envy. She has chosen to bring ethnicity into it to bolster what is a very weak argument by suggesting that a person so successful as Mr Sunak cannot possibly represent the majority of Asians in the UK. This is an insult to those people. It suggests that they do not aspire to do well, and in the case of Asians in general, nothing could be further from the truth.