Former PM’s promotion of Beijing-backed development in Sri Lanka has increased concern he could be a pawn for China’s Xi Jinping.

  • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Honestly it’s fucking ridiculous they brought him back.

    He’s responsible for the referendum. He said he’d implement it if voted for and then immediately quit when the leave vote won.

    I wonder if he’s popular with their core voters or something. Because I can’t see the logic of it.

    • thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
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      1 year ago

      He’s more popular with the swinging soft right voters who move between tory and lib dem (centrist) in the formerly safe tory seats in the south they are now scared they’ll lose. He’s not particularly popular with core tories as he’s a remainer.

      The primary reason for the selection is the lack of talent remaining for Sunak to choose from that won’t alienate the voters they need to retain a number of Tory seats. Boris purged anyone who wasn’t a foaming at the mouth brexiter before the last election, leaving Sunak with ideologues like Braverman & Patel to choose from, who are disliked by everyone bar the very hard right (15-20% of voters absolute tops).

      At the moment the polls predict a “blue wall” collapse as severe as the “red wall” collapse at the last election. You don’t win back moderates’ votes by lurching ever further right.

      Hence, moderate PM is bought back into the fold

    • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Does it matter if he’s popular? Getting the old skeletons out of the closet and hanging them up again seems to be a pretty popular tactic in western politics right now. The US took obviously demented Biden, the German conservatives are now lead by a guy that lost to Merkel 20 years ago, and now the UK are pulling Cameron back up.

      Anything but leading a genuine generational change and moving to politics that do more than cling on to the past.

      • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I’ve never seen any actual evidence that Biden is suffering from mental decline. Kind of feels like right wing propaganda and ageism.

        I know plenty of people whose mental faculties remained till the end of their lives.

            • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              In this regard they are both symptoms of the same problem. Instead of creating a new generation of leaders and moving on with the world, it is looked in the past, to find people that manage stagnation or reactionary politics moving backwards.

              • davepleasebehave@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Biden was chosen on order to avoid the mistakes of Clinton.

                a safe pair of hands that could not be accused of being a communist and could attract swing voters and allow republicans to hold their nose and vote for him.

                At least republican’s would not have a visceral reaction and might happily stay away from the booths.

            • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Yes they are

              https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dementia/symptoms-and-diagnosis/symptoms/

              • memory loss
              • difficulty concentrating
              • finding it hard to carry out familiar daily tasks, such as getting confused over the correct change when shopping
              • struggling to follow a conversation or find the right word
              • being confused about time and place
              • mood changes

              The fourth and sixth point definetely apply to Biden.

              • Lmaydev@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                They also apply to a huge number of people. I mean mood changes could not be more generic. He also seems to follow conversations fine.

                You’re also ignoring the fact he doesn’t show 4 out of 6 lol

                • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  i wrote

                  The fourth and sixth point definetely apply to Biden.

                  which means something else than “4 out of 6”

                  i expect a president not to starting talking during a press conference, that he thinks one of the reporters is an idiot. That is definetely more than the appropriate mood swing for a president