Here comes a new recruit to Nigel Farage's barmy army. Be afraid. Be very afraid |
Former Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman was giddy with weapons-grade patriotism as she renounced her Conservativism and embraced Reform. But, says Herald columnist Kevin McKenna, UK fetishists are not our friends
Suella Braverman bounded into the arms of Nigel Farage like a soap actor greeting Davina McCall after being ejected from the Big Brother house. She positively glowed as she spoke about her love for her country and saluted the “contribution Britain has made to civilisation”.
Like many other UK patriotic fetishists, she neglected to mention that Britain’s contribution to global civilisation usually meant stripping weaker nations of their dignity and riches. Ask the Indians, the Africans, the peoples of the Middle East and the Irish if Britain contributed to their civilisation.
Like Ms Braverman’s admirable family, the Irish came here after the Great Famine with nothing, only to face decades of oppression and race-baiting. We could never have embraced the Tories, who were the antagonists-in-chief of the Irish. We joined the Labour Party and the trade unions to help lift us out of poverty. It was they (and only they) who created the opportunities for us to make our contribution on an equal footing.
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If Reform had been around then, they’d have sent us all back on the boats we arrived in. The Irish were fleeing a famine whose effects were exacerbated by the cruelty and oppression of the 19th century Tories. Those seeking to settle in Britain from other nations may well have been grateful for the new opportunities they’d get here, but this was often after this country had ransacked their nations and sent multitudes of their citizens into slavery.
The militaristic........