Another minority candidate, Suella Braverman, dropped out in today’s poll. Nevertheless, the British may soon have their first non-white prime minister. In British politics, the Conservative ruling party has long been the first to show visible diversity. After two votes among the party’s politicians in parliament this week, there are now five candidates left in the battle to take over the job from Boris Johnson. It is Rishi Sunak – who also received the most votes in today’s vote – Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat. The first two have an ethnic minority background (see candidate overview further down in the case). Over the weekend, the parliamentarians will continue to vote for candidates until there are two finalists left. Then party members will vote on who will take over the keys to Downing Street number 10 on September 6. The result is announced the day before. Once again, it may be the party on the right in British politics that paves the way for a more diverse leadership in British politics. Here are some examples of how the party has taken the lead in diversity issues: First female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister. She belonged to the Conservative Party, where she became leader in 1975. Four years later she was prime minister. It lasted for over 11 years. The British second female prime minister was also conservative. Theresa May took over as party leader when the British voted out of the EU in 2016 and remained in office until 2019. Three of the five remaining prime ministerial candidates are women. Is Margaret Thatcher Liz Truss’ role model? Will she become Britain’s third female prime minister? Photo: Screenshot / Twitter Among them is Foreign Minister Liz Truss. Her resemblance to the “Iron Woman” is constantly being pointed out by British political commentators. Several of the candidates refer to Thatcher in the election campaign. She remains a role model for many conservative politicians. The British Labor Party, on the other hand, has never had a female leader. First Jewish Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was Prime Minister twice. In 1868 and from 1874 to 1880. He is considered the founder of the modern conservative party. Disraeli was born a Jew, but was baptized in the Anglican Church. So he converted early to Christianity. Still, many consider him the first British prime minister with a minority background. Under his leadership, the party became the most associated with the British Empire. At the height, the British ruled over a third of the world’s territory and a quarter of the world’s population. The British thus opened their minds early on to people from other cultures, even though they subjugated them. When they themselves needed labor at home, they also opened their country to people from the colonies. So they were out early with immigration and integration. Benjamin Disraeli was Britain’s first Jewish prime minister. But he was baptized in the Anglican Church and had converted to Christianity. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / NRKBenjamin Disraeli was the British’s first Jewish prime minister. But he was baptized in the Anglican Church and had converted to Christianity. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Same-sex marriage It was the Conservative Party under David Cameron that legalized same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The law came into force in 2014. It did not happen without a fight in the party. But it happened. The governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland, with other parties in the lead, later came to the same conclusion. Scotland later that year, Northern Ireland only in 2020. These are the remaining candidates Explanations Although the Conservative Party seems to have taken the lead in a number of diversity issues, minority voters are voting for the opposition. 62 percent of them voted for Labor in the last parliamentary elections and only 24 percent for the Conservative Party. How is it related? Cleaning up the majority? Some believe that minorities are used to clean up the majority’s point of view. – A few black and brown faces in high positions have been a well-used tool since colonial times, writes Nandini Archer on the website Open Democracy. But they represent the majority, not the minority, she believes. This is also something people news meets in London are interested in. They are concerned about what policies the candidates stand for and what they can do for them. Not of what background they have. They do not necessarily think that the minority candidates represent the minority population any better than other candidates. Faster in practical politics than with changes in attitude Several political scientists believe that where Labor is a more ideological party, the conservatives are more pragmatically adaptable. One of them is Associate Professor at the University of Oslo, Øivind Bratberg: – The conservative Tories have always had an ambiguous relationship with diversity. There has been an xenophobic undercurrent in the party ever since the interwar period, he says. But where the party has often been behind in attitude, it has been quick in practice, he emphasizes. King’s College professor Vernon Bogdanor believes the Conservative Party is a more practical and adaptable party than Labor. He also points to what he believes is an important cultural difference between white working-class Britons and parts of the minority population: – Many with a minority background place great emphasis on education. The same cannot be said of the white working class, Bogdanor believes. – There are many opponents of higher education. They live in the belief that they can still drop out of school without special qualifications and go straight into a job that will last a lifetime. It was common to do in the 1950s and 60s, but not now. This attitude towards education gives the minority population a head start in higher positions. They succeed better both financially and in other ways, is his reasoning
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That is why conservative Britons are best at diversity – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
