In 2016 the world was shocked when the United States political system elevated a privileged self centred man child with a long record of making bigoted statements to the highest office in the land. The UK is facing its own Donald Trump moment as Boris Johnson looks set to become the leader of the Conservative Party. Johnson looked odds on favourite to become leader on 13th June when he topped the first ballot picking up 114 votes in a crowded field with his nearest challenger being Jeremy Hunt on 43 votes. On the 18th June he increased his tally to 126 votes slightly extending his lead over Hunt. He is now almost certain to qualify for the run off election among the Tory party rank and file of which he has considerable support.
Throughout his entire career most of the mainstream press have bought into “Brand Boris” portraying him as a affable bumbling toff. This carefully cultivated persona covers a far darker truth about Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
His true character is revealed in many of his own utterances.
LGBT issues
In 1998 in a column for the Daily Telegraph about the resignation of Peter Mandelson he described gay men as “tank-topped bumboys”.
“Labour’s appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools.”
– The Spectator 15th April 2000
“If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”
– In his 2001 book “Friends, Voters, Countrymen”
On Racism and Colonialism
“The Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies”
– Daily Telegraph 10th Jan 2002
“They say he (Tony Blair) is shortly off to the Congo. 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.”
– Daily Telegraph 10 January 2002
“The best fate for Africa would be if the old colonial powers, or their citizens, scrambled once again in her direction; on the understanding that this time they will not be asked to feel guilty.”
– The Spectator 2 February 2002
Islamophobia
In 2018 in his Telegraph column he described women Muslim women who wear veils as looking like “letterboxes” and compared them to “Bank Robbers”
On Scotland
In 2004 Boris Johnson wrote a poem for The Spectator in which he referred to Scottish People as “a verminous race” and “Tartan Dwarves” accusing them of “Polluting our stock and undermining our economy.” He then described Scottish culture as “offensively foreign” and advocated rebuilding Hadrian’s Wall and “comprehensive extermination” of the Scottish people.
Make no mistake this man is Trump with Etonian charm which only makes him more dangerous. With him poised to become Tory Leader and Prime Minister all progressive forces must prepare to resist the reactionary forces his elevation to Prime Minster will unleash.
