The politically-correct British media often complain that there are too few people from ethnic minorities in senior political roles. This is contrasted with the position in the United States, where Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are near the top of the tree. The complainers often ask rhetorically: when will we ever see a non-white Prime Minister?
I was therefore pleased to discover recently that (on a broad enough definition) we have already had one.
Lord Liverpool (Robert Banks Jenkinson, 1770-1828) was Tory Prime Minister from 1812 to 1827. He was descended on his mother’s side from British merchants in India who had intermarried with the local population. I don’t know the exact proportion of Indian ancestry, but it was less than a quarter, so probably not noticeable. But it was no secret, and Lord Liverpool himself referred to it in his speeches.
It is interesting that the Tory (Conservative) party seems to have been more adventurous in its choice of leaders than its opponents. Apart from Liverpool, they include the Jewish Benjamin Disraeli (admittedly baptised as a Christian, but Jewish by name, ancestry and appearance), a ‘confirmed bachelor’ (Edward Heath), a woman (Margaret Thatcher), and the son of a trapeze-artist with a very colourful love-life (John Major). The present leader of the party (Iain Duncan Smith) is one-eighth Japanese, and his main rival for the leadership is a half-Spaniard with an admitted gay past (Michael Portillo).
So I’m inclined to predict that within 30 years we will have a black lesbian Prime Minister – and she will be a Tory!
DAVID BURBRIDGE
Godless comments
within 30 years we will have a black lesbian Prime Minister – and she will be a Tory!
I shall refrain from making the obvious Condoleeza Rice reference…
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