Rishi Sunak is the new prime minister of the UK. The first person of color tapped for this job, it is an important milestone. There are also celebrations in India as Sunak is of Indian descent. But as in the case of Kamala Harris, Sunak is brown on the outside and white on the inside. Even more than Harris because he is one of the richest person in the UK and is the leader of the Conservative party. So his policies are likely pro corporations and the wealthy. He was the equivalent of the Secretary of Treasury under Boris Johnson and so it is unlikely that his policies will be much different those of Johnson and Truss. Those policies have not been working so I doubt that Sunak will be able to get the UK out of the financial crisis any time soon.
I understand that the parliamentary system means that the leader of the party with the most members of parliament becomes prime minister. But there has not been any election since Boris Johnson led his party to victory. So basically Truss and Sunak are not elected by the majority of the people but by just members of the Conservative party. This is democracy?
Trevor Noah showed someone calling in a show in England who said that as a white country it makes no sense that an Indian guy becomes the leader. He said it would be like him going to Pakistan or Saudi Arabia and become their leader. Hmm! I think that has been done before. But the white guys in those situations used guns and bombs to gain power. Sunak won by voting, even if it is just by the members of the Conservative party which are mostly white.
Very interesting. I am assuming there is an election for PM at some point and that he would have to run. Are there primary elections like they have here? I assume since the party elected him PM that they would continue with him again unless the UK tanks even further.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like a huge deal though for the conservatives. He must say and believe in things the party does. I admit I don't know much about him. I did see that he studied at Stanford and his wife comes from a rich family. It'll be interesting to see how he does and what direction the UK takes with him as PM.
-LBOAYM