Rewriting History

The French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has "sparked Algeria row", according to the headlines of Britain's leading liberal newspaper, by saying something that provoked a fascist to patriotic indignation. Macron referred to France's colonial history in Algeria as a crime against humanity, and said that the nation must face up to its past and apologise to those who suffered. Worse yet, he said it in Algiers, surrounded by the very same sort of people who carry out fictitious sex attacks in Frankfurt. Having taken a day or two to get over her moral shock, Marine Le Pen had a squeal on Facebook; while the conservative and possible crook François Fillon accused Macron of disliking history and of "continual repentance" after the fashion of our own Mau Mau-hugging Britain-bashers who can't even find a bit of rah-rah in the Somme. Fillon himself has referred to France's colonial past as a "cultural exchange", which is a bit more woolly and liberal than the idea that We did all the giving and They did all the taking, but still not quite how the uppity wogs tend to see matters.