Antes de se tornar primeiro -ministro, Theresa May disse a uma conferência do Partido Tory que os conservadores haviam se tornado "o Partido desagradável". Ela estava referenciando uma percepção de que seu partido era anti-gay, anti-multiculturalismo e zombou de quem dependia do estado de bem-estar. coisa. 'Acordou'-e de qualquer maneira, que está realmente levando a sério as opiniões de um sertão de olhos giratórios, ansiando por um retorno ao século XIX e ao Império. calha.
David Cameron was so sensitive and alive to the charge that he wore his liberal values on his sleeve, changed the Tory emblem from a torch to a tree, hugged a hoodie, and pursued the ‘Big Society’ long before ‘levelling-up’ was a thing.
Whether that was sustained during his administration is debateable, but we at least have to acknowledge that there was a genuine acknowledgement that the Conservative brand needed to be de-toxified.
Through Brexit, Johnson, and Truss, disorder and disarray overshadowed the rather poisonous views of a minority of the government’s MPs on a range of issues that they would generally refer to as ‘woke’ – and anyway, who is really taking seriously the views of a swivel-eyed backwoodsman, yearning for a return to the nineteenth century and the Empire.
The language about immigration, the LGBT community, and even the homeless, from some ministers and backbenchers have left a lot to be desired in recent months – but, for the most part, Rishi Sunak has largely remained above the fray, and out of the gutter.
Isso foi até esta semana. O anfitrião de gamehow exagerado não foi simplesmente mal aconselhado, mas humilhante para Sunak pessoalmente, e para o escritório que ele tem o privilégio de manter. Sua piada sobre Keir Starmer sem saber a diferença entre um homem e uma mulher teria sido barato na melhor das hipóteses. Feito em uma sessão quando a mãe da vítima de assassinato de transgêneros, Brianna Gray, estava no Parlamento - e depois não se desculpando com ela e sua família depois - é um pouco grosseiro.
Whatever one thinks about the Rwandan policy, we should never forget that we are talking about ‘deterring’ desperate people, often women and children, who are quite literally, risking their lives for a better life.
Therefore, the sight of a multimillionaire prime minister jovially accepting a one-thousand-pound bet from a over-promoted gameshow host was not simply ill-advised, but demeaning to both Sunak personally, and to the office that he has the privilege to hold.
Bad though that was, it paled into insignificance when contrasted with Sunak’s performance at PMQs on Wednesday. His jibe about Keir Starmer not knowing the difference between a man and a woman would have been cheap at the best of times. Made at a session when the mother of transgender murder victim Brianna Gray’s mother was in parliament – and then failing to apologise to her and her family afterwards– is mind bogglingly crass.
Theresa pode obviamente ter visto pouca vantagem de sua festa sendo percebida como "desagradável". Sunak pensa claramente de maneira diferente.
