We noted yesterday that former Liberal minister turned official lobbyist Christopher Pyne had written an ode to imperialism in an op-ed in the SMH and Age, calling for Greenland to embrace United States ownership for…reasons. Those reasons weren’t actually mapped out, other than some vague references to history where imperial powers have ‘bought’ nations and because Pyne thinks the US would offer the people of Greenland a richer and safer life (based on what evidence, again, is unclear).

Well Tony Wright, who has been covering politics for as longer than I have been able to read, has written a response to Pyne, asking him to check his history

Pyne resorts to precedent and history to support Trump’s wish to take over Greenland, but history, it happens, is a double-edged Viking sword.

Erik the Red’s son, Leif Erikson, is credited with being the first European to make his way to North America, where a Viking settlement was established in Newfoundland, also around the year 1000. Erikson later became chief of the Vikings on Greenland.

Perhaps, rather than Trump’s administration grabbing Greenland, Pyne might instead consider it is about time for the Scandinavians to reclaim America.