Tory leadership candidate wades into reparations debate, arguing empire brought democratic institutions
  • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
    1·
    7 days ago

    You should be glad we raped, plundered, murdered, and enslaved you!

    Imagine if someone in government said this about Japan and Korea, Manchuria, etc. (and this is something that some far-right Japanese groups believe and say and is met with predictable reprehension domestically and abroad).

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zoneEnglish
    1·
    7 days ago

    Maybe they do. Maybe they can see that we tanked our own supply of doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, tradesmen, etc etc and are coming to help out.

  • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
    10·
    16 days ago

    To a certain extent I understand courting the fringes of your party every now and then. But for the life of me I don’t understand making that cohort the main goal of your increasingly nuttier and nuttier rhetoric.

    What is this electoral calculus?

      • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        16 days ago

        He’s got to appeal to the Tory base who are mostly racist boomers who were never taught about colonialism outside of how the British showed up and tried to civilize the savages.

      • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
        3·
        16 days ago

        Maybe within the Tory party, for sure. I can believe that. But does he not want the Conservatives to be electable in a general election scenario.

        I’m not trying to be funny, but isn’t this exactly what Labour did with the Corbyn years? Appealed to what looked like a large majority of their membership that turned out to be spectacularly unpopular at a general election level.

        I cannot believe the Tories want to repeat this lesson. I mean, if they want to be out of office for a decade then that’s cool with me.

        • WestBromwich@feddit.ukEnglish
          1·
          16 days ago

          Maybe Jenrick could do what Starmer did - make some radical statements to win over the party and become leader, then soften your stance to become more electable to the general public later on.

          • mannycalavera@feddit.ukEnglish
            2·
            16 days ago

            I’d hope he sends the Tories further down in parliament such that the strong opposition is the Lib Dems. The Tories can language in Green or SNP territory.

    • Daniel Quinn@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      16 days ago

      It’s actually rather brilliant.

      In an (d)effective 2 party system like ours, running to your extremes has few costs, since the electorate tend to vote parties out rather than vote them in. When the public tires of the ruling party (it helps if you own most of the media) and you do get elected, it’s by:

      1. your base that votes for you regardless
      2. new voters from the fringe you’ve been courting
      3. people who’ve convinced themselves that you’re just pretending to be crazy to court that fringe.

      Now you can do whatever you like and if people complain they get shouted down by both sides: “What did you expect? They literally told you they were going to do this.”

      In short, it’s how you drag the Overton Window toward that extreme. If only the Left in this country had figured this out years ago, we wouldn’t be saddled with Sir Red Tory.