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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      8 months 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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        8 months 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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        8 months 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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          8 months 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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                8 months 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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                  8 months 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.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    When Chinese president Xi Jinping cut the ribbon on Sri Lanka’s Port City Colombo construction site in September 2014, it was promoted as a future major hub in China’s global infrastructure project, the belt and road initiative.

    Some Sri Lankans are worried that the ambitious project may deliver few benefits, have a negative impact on the environment and leave the island nation lumbered with a sprawling white elephant.

    The Facebook page of Port City Colombo Limited, whose ultimate owner is the state-owned China Communications Construction Company, carries several photographs featuring one of its most enthusiastic advocates: Britain’s new foreign secretary, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton.

    Cameron’s office has not commented on fees, but said the speaking events were arranged via the Washington Speakers Bureau, and the contracting party was KPMG Sri Lanka.

    In July 2020, Boris Johnson’s government announced that it would ban Huawei from the country’s high-speed 5G mobile communications network.

    He flew to Beijing in September 2017 to discuss a plan for a new UK-China investment fund with China’s vice premier, Ma Kai.


    The original article contains 1,343 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • neutronst4r@beehaw.org
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    8 months ago

    Remember when he joined GWB in claiming that Irag had WMDs and it turnen out to be a lie to justify a completely unjust war with half a million dead Iraqy civilians and no one was ever held responsible?

    I remember that.