Arrogant and Joyless: Obama's Take on Britain? (Times Online, UK)

The President-elect's writings seem to be coloured by his grandfather's brutal treatment at the hands of the colonists.

More than half a century ago an African was arrested by Kenya's colonial police; he was imprisoned, tortured, and finally released two years later, a broken man. Such episodes were grimly common during the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule in Kenya, yet this sharp little shard of history has now poked above the surface again, as the story of Barack Obama's grandfather.

This is more than simply another fascinating element in Mr Obama's already colourful story. No president of modern times is so steeped in history, both America's history and his own family narrative. The past, and where he came from - Hawaii, Indonesia, Kenya, Chicago - is how Mr Obama has chosen to define himself to the American electorate.

But the story of his grandfather's treatment at the hands of the British illustrates how little we, as a country, yet know about Mr Obama's view of Britain, and the extent to which those attitudes are likely to be filtered through the prism of the past.

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