Kemi Badenoch: The Profound Tragedy Of The Black Conservative Politician, Revisited.
Read on…
These are truly strange times in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In a space of 10 years, we have had the Scottish independence and the European Union referenda and with it, a seismic realignment of our polity, leading to three Prime Ministers in one calendar year, a rupture from the most prosperous political bloc since the second world war.
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, our politics have lurched to the extreme right, giving rise to the worst set of political figures to emerge from these isles in hundreds of years.
Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Kwasi Kwarteng with Kemi Badenoch have been leading the charge for this unrecognizable version of the Conservative Party, in the 21st century.
And what’s interesting about these figures is that they are all from migrant backgrounds; folks whose parents migrated to the UK, when casual racism and violence was at its peak.
Patel, Sunak, Braverman, Kwarteng and Badenoch were born between 1972–1980 and for people with very long memories, they will recall with ease that the Tories were at the forefront of anti-immigration rhetoric, with Margaret Thatcher’s memorable phrase of not wanting…