I knew “those adverts” had achieved “cut-through” when one of my aunties from India asked me on WhatsApp if Labour seriously thought Rishi Sunak supported child abusers. The good news is that Labour’s advertising campaign has gone global. The bad news is that lots of people think Labour is calling him a patron of paedophilia. To be fair, that’s basically what Boris Johnson did to Keir Starmer about his time as DPP and Jimmy Savile (Sunak has never apologised for that horrible smear) — which means the art of political debate in Britain is each party yelling “nonce” at the other.
Weaponising paedophilia for political advantage is grotesque. Ironically, many bigots look at our Prime Minister and will lump him in with Asian groomers. I don’t buy the lazy argument that there’s no racism towards him. I’ve seen it. Being rich, Tory and brown doesn’t insulate you from the crudest form of prejudice and innuendo.
So when Labour’s advert with Sunak dropped, I was pretty shocked. I thought it was a reaction to Braverman’s comments and felt queasy, as did many other people — especially from ethnic minority backgrounds. I have now learned that this was not the case and that the timing of the adverts was not done in response to the Home Secretary linking Asian men to sex abuse — the coincidence was unfortunate and has caused a lot of anger and confusion.
The counter-argument from Labour goes like this. The Tories have got form on this kind of racialised attack — just look at how Sadiq Khan was basically called a terrorist sympathiser when he first ran against Zac Goldsmith. Look at what Johnson said about Muslim women and about Starmer. What Braverman says about Pakistani men and blaming Labour councils. All fair points. But Labour should be better than the Home Secretary. And words matter from our leaders. They send a signal to the public. There are horrible real-life consequences, sadly already happening. Just look at the abuse high- profile British Asian men are getting online, like GMB presenter Adil Ray.
I don’t think Labour intended the racial sub-text of that advert but it’s not a good look. However, I have no problem with Labour attacking the Government on their record over the last 13 years — Sunak is now the face of that failure.
The Tories are the masters of merciless, hardcore negative campaigning. As a former Labour adviser, I watched my bosses get unfairly ripped to pieces and often felt frustrated that we didn’t punch back hard enough. Why should Labour be the “nice losers” yet again? It sometimes feels like Labour turns up to a knife-fight armed with a home-made, gluten-free flap jack.
So go hard on the parlous state of our NHS, schools, living standards and yes law and order — but steer well away from any dog whistles about Sunak’s race, intentional or not. It’s nasty, unnecessary plus there’s an embarrassment of riches to attack him on. Quite literally.
Succession is like a crazy dream
If you haven’t seen the latest episode of Succession, AVERT YOUR PRECIOUS EYES NOW…
If you have, you’re probably still flabbergasted. As the actress J.Smith-Cameron, who plays Gerri, tweeted “I was there, and I’m still in shock.” I genuinely thought it was a wind-up. A new low from Logan Roy, played by Brian Cox, aided and abetted by slimy Tom to “pretend” he was carking it on the plane to get one over his kids in their incessant game of corporate cat and mouse.
But no. RIP Logan Roy. Dundee’s finest export since Lorraine Kelly. The audacity and confidence of the superstar writing team led by Jesse Armstrong to kill off the central character so early in this final series makes us quiver over what lies ahead. I can’t help thinking that because it all happened over Easter, perhaps there will be some kind of rising? Or maybe it’s all a crazy dream and Logan will rock up in someone’s shower like Bobby Ewing… although nobody needs to see that.
