question of imperial legacy, marc. king the king of the belgians or king of belgium, as i should possibly style him was in the drc, the democratic republic of congo, this week. why, and what was different about this visit? well, it s the first time - you have a king of belgium belgium was terrible - at colonising not that there are good ones but they might i have been among the worst ones with the exploitation - of the people of the congo and the wealth and the minerals | of the congo that built belgium| as a superpower at the end of the 19th century - and beginning- of the 20th century. he went there to apologise. but he said exactly, - we denounce unacceptable regime based on paternalism and discrimination and racism . well, he didn t. really apologise. he just condemned it. and did he bring.?
i don t think i can, but essentially, what she was saying was that there was real violence used and some of the violence was stuff that would be that would be shameful to many people in this country if they knew the violence. some of those documents were hidden away in a government building and only appeared about ten years ago. crosstalk. the mau mau rebellion. yes. and that was an example of, effectively, the british establishment burying its legacy. look, i think all nations do want to hide things at times but i am just wary of this total sweep of colonial all colonialism is bad which there is a movement on that now. i don t think it s true. i think there were some very good things done during that period. isn t it is easier to celebrate the achievements if you acknowledge the flaws? i think that s right, but i think marc s point of very the commonwealth would not exist if britain s
but the fact is we are in for a really, really rough situation now. i think the really valid point you make, though, shaun, is that you re quite right this was a very disparate opposition to him. there isn t a focus to it and that s why i think the next few months are going to be extremely messy but very interesting journalistically. yeah, i mean, plenty for you guys to write about. let s move on to the economy because that is the one aspect of this that he can t control, however he might wish to. we had the oecd report this week, marc roche, saying that the british economy will perform next year the worst of all the g7 countries. but russia. except russia and you could argue that russia has extenuating circumstances. no longer g20. its economy is effectively being frozen out of the world economy by sanctions and so on. that s not the uk s problem, but what is the uk s problem? what do you think? well. i mean, you ve been studying the british economy and its strengths and
of the parliamentary group that really wanted her out and they succeeded and they were very targeted. while with this revolution, or rebellion, against boris, it was very difficult to describe. lots of wings standing up and saying, we are not happy with this any more . but then again, he s an extraordinary politician. he s different to every one else, so maybe he still might be around for the next election. marc, do you have an explanation for readers in france and in belgium of the political phenomena that is boris johnson? well, the problem i face is that the french are i divided about him. on the one hand, they like his sort of politics, he s funny, i he s a francophile, i he s a francophone. he s just the opposite - of a stuffy french politician like macron or like - hollande or like sarkozy, so they like that. on the other hand, - they perceive him as a liar because of brexit. he s provoking a terrible - crisis with the european union,
of belgium voices his deepest regret over the abuse and humiliation caused in what is now the drc by his family and other belgians. why do those who colonised find it so hard to say sorry? in the studio are stefanie bolzen, uk and ireland correspondent for the german media group die welt, marc roche, who writes for the french news magazine le point, and adam raphael, who began reporting on uk politics in 1976 the last year to date in which a british prime minister left office by choice. lovely to see you all. thank you very much for being with us. let me start with you, adam, on the question of boris s apparent survival and, certainly, survival for now. he says he s getting on with the job. is this just a display of kind of what one might call boris bravura or is the prime minister kind of right to think that his enemies perhaps moved a bit too soon? well, they may have moved too soon to kick him out but, actually, i think his position is unsustainable and my own view is tha