The tragic parable of Rishi Sunak: driven by success at all costs, then undone by his own myth-making
Nesrine Malik
The PM’s unbending belief in Britain as a meritocracy blinded him to the realities of race, class – and his own flawed project
Which does mean that if Britain’s not a meritocrsacy then and therefore Nesrine’s there on the basis of race and class.
Nice to know……
Does she mean that having as PM a 2nd generation immigrant Hindu isn’t a meritocracy? Or is she suggesting that Sunak doesn’t have enough merit to warrant the position?
Lord this woman is a pillock isn’t she ?
I won’t fisk the article, Steve or someone can do that but it shows the depths of their moral bankruptcy that the Guardian has
” fucking [P-word]”
as the supposed slur that that actor bloke used.
ps Sunak knifed two PMs to get to the top, but had no plan when he got there. He just wanted the position for its own prestige and was rapidly found out.
No; she means that under a real meritocracy, she would be editor by now.
Non sequitur, Tim. ‘The UK is not a meritocracy’ and ‘I (NM) was appointed solely on my merit’ are not mutually exclusive or contradictory statements because meritocracy admits of degree.
Myth-making? Nesquik’s a fine one to talk!
It’s best not to try to decipher this kind of muddled thinking, that way lies madness.
All senior politicians reach their positions by merit alone. Well-known fact.
Most of the measurements of class are faulty. Someone talks about how many people in journalism, olympic sport, music, acting, politics went to private school. But the thing is that while these are viewed as elite, on average there’s no money in them. No-one pays to watch rowing. It’s not that expensive to hire the B list sopranos for your wedding. Lots of Guardian writers are living in room shares.
And I suspect that class has always been overstated by lefties. You get rich promoting and hiring the best people and if you don’t, your competitors win. It’s evolutionary. That goes right through history. If Alexander had hired a bunch of morons, he would never have conquered so many lands. If you look at the senior people at GWR, some of them came from privilege, but many didn’t. Tim Cook’s dad was a shipyard worker. But he was shit hot at improving manufacturing at IBM, so Jobs hired him.
WB 9:45
But class is only indirectly about money. Hence the importance of there being ‘no money in them’; proof that you don’t need the money so must be of the better class. See also the idea(l) of a university education, the most useless, impractical studies the most valued, not needing to learn a trade, therefore not of the trading class.
If the UK was really a meritocracy then Ant & Dec wouldn’t be millionaires.
@Ottokring
I’m not surprised that Rashi was annoyed at that slur. After all, he’s not a Paki, he’s a wagon burner.
Otto – It’s something about how, despite our Prime Minister being an Indian man, Britain is still evil and racist because wypipo innit.
She’s a slightly more eloquent Sasha Johnson. Weirdly enough, the most virulent and shameless racists are usually women.
Mr Womby: Ant and Dec appear to have a magical ability to entertain the plebs, hence ITV pay them a shedload of money and they get some top TV award year after year.
By some definitions they definitely have merit, though they don’t entertain me in the slightest. I was instead entertained this afternoon by watching a bit of Shania Twain at Glasto and then Steel Pulse’s set there on iPlayer, whilst trying to get my head around a paper on the practical uses of quaternions (another Hacker News rabbit hole!). Such fun in retirement…
Ant and Dec appear to have a magical ability to entertain the plebs
I wonder if that’s actually true?
Or is it a case of, if there one football supporter in the gathering the channel will be on football.
djc,
“But class is only indirectly about money. Hence the importance of there being ‘no money in them’; proof that you don’t need the money so must be of the better class. See also the idea(l) of a university education, the most useless, impractical studies the most valued, not needing to learn a trade, therefore not of the trading class.”
In which case, class is going to be fluid, so what’s the issue? Dad makes his money in banking, and little Jocasta spends it all on being taught piano in a conservatoire. Jocasta’s kids are going to be skint from her blowing grandad’s fortune.
Personally, I don’t care about class. I think “new money” should be proud. People who came from a barn and become a millionaire are impressive people. People who are millionaires because their grandfather gave it to them show all the ability of dole scum. Why would you want to spend time with such people, other than to extract their million?
he’s not a Paki, he’s a wagon burner
Are you claiming Rishi’s of Cherokee descent, like Elizabeth Warren?
@Chris Miller (no, we will not let him go)
Mate of mine in SA used to refer to Indian Indians as wagon burners. It kind of stuck.
Western Bloke:
“If Alexander had hired a bunch of morons, he would never have conquered so many lands.”
Apparently the latest thinking on Alexander is that he didn’t do much other than inherit good subordinates and a good army from his dad, and then not mess it up.
Never mind that “not messing it up” requires a certain competence in itself.
@Henry Crun
When I was responsible for Computer Ops 30 years ago, one of the shift leaders liked the same line (channelling Freddie Mercury). We got on very well 🙂
Best to Minnie Bannister!