The talented Labour candidate Chuka Umunna writes today about how fed up he is with being described as “Britain’s Barack Obama”, saying he is quite happy to be “Streatham’s Chuka Umunna”.
Comparing every black male MP on the scene to Obama is a bit lazy — just because I’m from a similar background and profession, it’s such an easy comparison to make. It’s also quite annoying being viewed through the prism of someone else’s personality and identity, rather than your own.
Sure, he’s right. Just as Umunna’s politics, not the colour of his skin, are what matter, so the same is true of Obama. One of the maddening elements of the president’s election was the endless claim that its significance was in his being black, as opposed to his values. In fact, it was far more significant, for example, that a politician who opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning (unlike Hillary Clinton) could be elected president so soon after 11 September 2001. Or, indeed, one who openly called on the supposedly conservative US to “spread the wealth”.
Which explains why David Cameron is so keen to emphasise the colour of Obama’s skin as opposed to his politics, which are diametrically opposed to those of the British Conservative Party.
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