He apologised in 2008 for a 2002 column entitled “If Blair’s so good at running the Congo, let him stay there” in which he referred to “flag-waving piccaninnies” and wrote of Tony Blair’s arrival: “No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird.”
. . . wow.