Newly emergent Conservative politician Sam Gyimah tells us that if we are divorced from our history, we are divorced from ourselves. Standard conservative philosophy, and sounds very sensible. But does it produce some surprising results?
Claire Foges (also conservative, though not a politician) now complains about Comic Relief deciding not to feature ‘white saviours’ (white celebrities) in its fundraising appeals. But are the ‘politically correct’ campaigners more in touch with Tory ideas about history than she realises? The charities are, of course, watching their backs right now because of the recent abuse scandals. But they have deeper problems to address: in particular the claim that capitalism is already lifting the poor masses out of poverty and aid or charity programmes only get in the way, and the idea expressed by Gyimah that none of us can set aside our history, presumably including the unsavoury aspects thereof. That might imply that featuring white charity publicists merely glosses over the history of colonialism (or even current dependency), and should be rejected in favour of those culturally connected with charity recipients in poor parts of the world.
These issues are complex and it may be too soon to recognise PC campaigners, black and white alike, as emerging Conservatives (followers of Edmund Burke and Roger Scruton?), but who knows what history will come to say?