By Rab Bruce’s Spider

You expect Nigel Farage to make outrageously racist comments but he’s far from the only prominent UK politician to do so. Boris Johnson has rightly been castigated for claiming that Barak Obama’s anti-Brexit comments are inspired by his part-Kenyan ancestry. Not only is this comment typical of the BritNat belief that race lies at the heart of most issues, it reveals something which the media has, so far as I know, not mentioned.

Because Boris Johnson has, in the past, acclaimed the achievements and legacy of the British Empire. But his remark about Kenya shows that he must know that the British Empire was not a benevolent ruler. If it had been, why on earth would he think that someone of Kenyan ancestry would feel any bitterness towards the UK? If the British Empire had been such a good thing, wouldn’t Boris believe that Kenyans must feel some attachment to the UK? To use Kenyan ancestry as a reason for antipathy shows that Boris Johnson must know how brutal the British were when in control of Kenya. Concentration camps, executions and torture were part and parcel of colonial rule. These things don’t normally feature in BritNat thinking so it’s nice to see that, even obliquely, Boris Johnson has acknowledged the deliberate harm the British Empire caused in its colonies.

I don’t for one moment think that President Obama was influenced by his ancestry when making his comments. His primary aim is to ensure that US Corporations retain their hegemony over the EU through deals like TTIP, and scoring points based on ethnic backgrounds was probably the last thing on his mind. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Little Englanders like Boris Johnson for whom ethnicity is central to their belief system. Whatever you think of Obama’s intervention, we should be grateful that it prompted Boris Johnson to show his true colours and also to tacitly acknowledge the harm the British Empire did to its colonial subjects.