The vote of party members for the election of the British Conservative Party leader ends on September 2, and the results will be announced on the 5th. The winner will become the next British Prime Minister.
In this "small circle" election, where the exact number of party members has not been disclosed, according to analysis, grassroots Conservative party members, who are whiter, older and more male than British voters, have been released since the last two candidates. It has always favored Foreign Minister Liz Truss with a large proportion, and his Indian opponent, former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, chased after the vote for a month, but failed to reverse the defeat.
Readers watching the fire from far away Hong Kong and immersed in the American media full of racial discourse may intuitively think that this is a racial issue, because the British have not yet been able to accept a non-white prime minister, even if it is not a problem for the British as a whole. Stubbornness, at least only proportionally more than the Brits, is an issue for Conservative Party members who oppose immigration.
Strangely, the issue of racial discrimination has almost disappeared from mainstream public opinion regarding the "intra-party fight" between Zhuo Huisi and Xin Weicheng.
The difference between the two policies, the position change during the campaign, the debate performance, the discussion of personal character, Xin Weicheng's status as a rich man from the land, the story of Zhuo Huisi from the Liberal Democratic Party to the Conservative Party/Remainers to Brexiteers... ...even a meta-discussion of British, British, Conservative political culture, there is no shortage of it.
To be honest, both candidates are very mediocre and boring (a topic that has attracted some political commentary), and people who depend on writing for a living have no issues, why do they avoid racial issues?
Of course, avoiding talk and not worth talking about are two different things.
Is racial discrimination really the reason why Xin Weicheng is about to lose the election?
First of all, we cannot deny that there is a racial problem in the UK. For example, in England and Wales, blacks are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than whites; not to mention Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. ) high-profile allegations against the royal family.
Meanwhile, while no one would admit to being 'racist' in opinion polls, some indirect surveys seem to suggest that Tory members are more mindful of ethnic minorities or 'outsiders' than the average UK voter - 38 % of Conservative Party members think Britain's equal opportunity policy for ethnic minorities has gone too far, compared with only 26% of the general electorate; the two oppose immigration by a ratio of 45% to 19%.
Even so, if we look back at the poll of the leaders of the party conducted by the polling agency Opinium in January this year, in fact, Xin Weicheng's support among Conservative Party members at that time not only won Zhuo Huisi (64% to 36%), but also lost more. Jeremy Hunt (79% to 21%), the former foreign minister of the Conservative Party's Wenbao faction, said 44% of the party members surveyed believed that Xin Weicheng should enter the final election, while the same proportion of Zhuo Huisi was 33%.
3) And if he gets onto the ballot paper, Sunak is clear favourite to win a leadership contest. After removing don't knows and would not votes...
Sunak beats Truss 64% to 36%
Sunak beats Hunt 79% to 21%
Truss would beat Hunt by 71% to 29% pic.twitter.com/hlwVDDlRaD
— Opinium (@OpiniumResearch) January 17, 2022
It can be seen that the Conservative Party members did not discriminate against Xin Weicheng at that time because of his Indian background.
In contrast, today's party leader poll, also conducted by Opinium in mid-August, is just the opposite, showing that Zhuo Huisi has 61% support to win Xin Weicheng.
The change in the past six months is obviously not due to Xin Weicheng's ethnic background, nor is it because Conservative Party members suddenly discovered that Xin Weicheng is not white.
There are at least five reasons for
Xin Weicheng to lose the election
.
1. No more “heroes for sending money”
: He was able to become party leader and prime minister within a few short years after he entered the Congress in 2015. The basis was only after he became the finance minister in 2020 and just met the situation under the epidemic. The wave of sending money to bail out the market, and tens of billions of various reliefs have made it popular.
Now that inflation has returned and there is no more room to distribute money, Xin Weicheng has of course lost his halo.
🚨NEW CONSERVATIVE MEMBERS POLL🚨
Liz Truss holds a 22 points lead.
Liz Truss 61%
Rishi Sunak 39%
We surveyed 570 members between Monday and Friday this week. pic.twitter.com/T6wTCPM63V
— Opinium (@OpiniumResearch) August 13, 2022
2. It has become an example of "the world is as black as a crow"
: after the anti-inflation policy in March of this year was widely criticized, the Xin Weicheng scandal broke out within a few days: his wife avoided taxes as high as 20 million pounds, and he took office by himself. He still holds a US green card for more than a year, and was fined with Johnson for illegally partying... His image as a "little freshman in politics" has been swept away.
3. Too rich
: Under the pressure of people's livelihood expenses, the people of course have hatred for the rich. Xin Weicheng and his wife have a net worth of more than 700 million pounds. He was accused of being covered in famous brands and not knowing how to pay when he went to the gas station. Greatly increased his sense of "off the ground".
4. The crime of "Killing the King"
: Although most of the British people believe that Johnson should step down, members of the Conservative Party have always been more supportive of Johnson. Now more than half of the members of the party believe that it may be wrong for MPs to kick Johnson out of office.
Xin Weicheng, however, was the initiator of the resignation that triggered the tide of cabinet jumping and led to Johnson's resignation.
Polls show that "stabbing a knife in the back" of Johnson is the primary reason for party members' dissatisfaction with Xin Weicheng.
In contrast, Zhuohuisi is a loyal figure who accompanied Johnson "to the end".
Tracy: The picture shows British Foreign Secretary Tracy speaking to members of the Conservative Party in Birmingham on August 23, 2022.
(AP)
5. Uncertain position
: Among Yunyun’s candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party, Xin Weicheng is the only one who advocates high inflation and does not cut taxes, making himself the only candidate who dares to “speak the truth” to the people; At the beginning, Zhuo Huisi, who responded to the ever-changing "tax cuts", had an advantage, while Xin Weicheng attracted the support of people of insight.
However, in order to compete for votes, Xin Weicheng launched a tax reduction policy and played an ideological card, claiming to expand the UK's anti-terrorism strategy to the level of "defaming the UK" and attacking the new gender classification of left-wing progressives. The populists, whose positions are uncertain, have lost their original base.
The above five "crimes" are enough to explain why Xin Weicheng failed to catch up with Zhuo Huisi.
The issue of race is probably only secondary.
In fact, judging from Xin Weicheng's background in Winchester College (Winchester College), a first-class honors degree in Oxford's "Political Philosophy and Economics", a master's degree from Stanford, and a financial talent who moved to the political world, Xin Weicheng is absolutely indifferent except for his shallow skin. He is a member of the typical British elite, and he is more in line with the model of the Conservative Party's political elite than many lighter-skinned Britons. He is probably a figure who grassroots members of the Conservative Party do not dare to discriminate.
From the perspective of the Conservative Party tradition, since Winchester has only produced a prime minister more than 200 years ago, Eton College (where Johnson, Cameron and others attended) has 20. This "small defect" may be the only place in the Conservative Party's political circles that can "discriminate" against Xin Weicheng, but there are very few people who can so discriminate against Xin Weicheng.
British Phase Controversy Poll: Zhuohuisi's support leads Xin Weicheng by 22 percentage points energy biller