Indian Culture in the UK

A) Listen to the audio about the woman pictured above and do part A of the worksheet

Télécharger « The BME debate audio »

B) Read the article about this man and do part B of the worksheet

September 6th 2022

Rishi Sunak never failed at anything before. At 42 years of age, the Winchester head boy who won glittering prizes at Oxford and Stanford, earning millions in finance before marrying into the billionaire classes, and who was Britain’s most popular Chancellor for half a century, has finally suffered a professional setback : He has lost the Conservative Party leadership election to Liz Truss who will become Britain's third woman prime minister. 

Some commentators will claim this result proves Conservative members were not ready for an ethnic minority leader. Did the majority of Conservative Party members consider that a British Minority Ethnic could not win the next general election for the party ? Was pure "racism" a factor in the choice of many party members ?

Although it is right to ask such questions, it would be wrong not to take into account a lot of other factors when we analyze the defeat of Mr Sunak. 

The economic and political context changed everything. Six months ago Sunak would have been favourite in this contest, but since then he has made many costly mistakes. Firstly he was fined for breaking Covid restriction rules during lockdown (even if his boss, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson must take a great share of the responsibility in that). Then there was the family tax scandal, his wife having avoided paying up to ten million pounds in tax because of her "non UK resident" status. This obviously caused much criticism especially when, with his Spring budget, the former chancellor refused to increase benefits and pensions for the poorest members of the UK society in the context of rising inflation and fuel costs. 

But perhaps his biggest mistake of all was his decision to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer before the resignation of Boris Johnson. In so doing he was seen by many as someone deserting a sinking ship. Breaking Covid rules and tax evasion are perhaps pardonnable to the majority of Conservative Party members, but maybe disloyalty is not.