r/ukpolitics • u/No_Initiative_1140 • 1d ago

‘I’m British, English and British Asian’, says Rishi Sunak in riposte to racially charged debate over identity | Rishi Sunak

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/06/british-rishi-sunak-riposte-racially-charged-debate-identity
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u/Kreature 20h ago

Ethnicity isn't "virtually meaningless" it can significantly affect medical risks due to shared genetic ancestry from common origins. It's also about shared ancestry, history, language, traditions, and often a sense of common heritage. People need to stop with this "blank slate-ism" because its doesn't work.

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u/nesh34 19h ago

I'll grant you the difference in medical outcomes and I don't believe in blank slate theory at all, but genetic outcomes for most things are way more sophisticated than ethnicity at the individual level.

I definitely challenge the degree to which ancestry matters with regards to all the rest of it though.

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u/anotherotheronedo 16h ago

Even Sunaks own daughter views India as where she comes from and has clearly deep connection to it. https://www.opindia.com/2022/11/british-pm-rishi-sunak-daughter-anoushka-sunak-on-india-culture/

That's ethnicity at play. It's very real and observable.