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A tiny wee thread about one of the new intake of Tory MPs currently making their mark in Westminster - one Danny Kruger. He's recently gained notice for his staunch defence of Cummings in the face of Tory unease... 1/n https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/tory-rebellion-force-johnson-dominic-cummings-lockdown
And this tweet last week in defence of the British empire's role in slavery caught the eye of a few of people 2/n
Now, this doesn't appear to be Danny's first statement on the topic - there's a genuinely jaw-dropping article by 'Daniel Kruger' in the Spectator from March 2003, whom I'm assuming is the same guy. 3/n
It's all the usual old stuff, but delivered with such gusto - and in the service of 'neo-colonialism', just in case you were thinking that this is all raking over old coals. A few 'highlights'... 4/n
No surprise there, perhaps - the run-up to the Iraq War was of course the high water mark of neo-liberal interventionism - but the linking of this to an especially partisan account of Britain's role re the slave trade helps to clarify the links between history and politics. 5/n
One of the other things that raises our Danny's contributions above the general hubbub is that he's a trained historian - according to some biographies online, and his Wiki page, he possesses a DPhil (Oxford speak for a PhD) in History. Interesting, huh? 6/n
Obviously, as an academic I was curious to see what Danny's thesis was about - perhaps he had evidence to support his strong assertion of the merits of the British Empire? One source suggests C18 British Political History, but that's a pretty general descriptor. 7/n
So I went to the Bodleian Library catalogue, which lists all Oxford DPhil theses, and so should have a record of our Danny boy's 2000 tome. But wait - what's this? Or rather, what isn't this? 8/n
Oddly there isn't any evidence here of a thesis. Does Danny not have that DPhil of which his biographies speak? Or is there an innocent explanation for the apparent discrepancy? Let's assume the latter - I've asked @danny__kruger if he can shed any light. More to follow? 9/9
