British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson’s offensive words on marble

Mr Boris Johnson, who the new British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has put in charge of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the American politician, Donald Trump, are kindred spirits in terms of gaffes and rambunctiousness.

Here are some of Johnson’s gaffes:

He wrote about Africans in a 2002 editorial in The Telegraph:

“What a relief it must be for Blair to get out of England. It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular crowds of flag-waving pickaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness.

“They say he 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.”

Johnson was said to have later apologised for using racist terms in the editorial.

Also, according to the London Guardian, in May 2016, Boris Johnson won a £1,000 prize for penning a rude poem about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, having sex with a goat. His limerick, published by the Spectator as a rebuff to Erdogan’s efforts to prosecute a German comedian’s offensive poem, also calls the Turkish leader a “wankerer”.
Here is the short poem:

“There was a young fellow from Ankara,
Who was a terrific wankerer.

“Till he sowed his wild oats,
With the help of a goat,
But he didn’t even stop to thankera.”

Johnson was reported to be surprised that his efforts were officially entered into the competition.

The Guardian reported further that Johnson attacked Papua New Guinea in September 2006

“In another attack on Tony Blair in another Telegraph column, Johnson wrote: ‘For 10 years we in the Tory party have become used to Papua New Guinea-style orgies of cannibalism and chief-killing and so it is with a happy amazement that we watch as the madness engulfs the Labour party.’”

After later apologising for any offence caused, the then MP for Henley said he would be happy to “add Papua New Guinea to my global itinerary of apology”. However, he insisted he was not mistaken about cannibalism in the country: “My remarks were inspired by a Time Life book I have which does indeed show relatively recent photos of Papua New Guinean tribes engaged in warfare, and I’m fairly certain that cannibalism was involved.”

During the EU referendum campaign, BBC reported that he drew criticism for comments he made about US President Barack Obama, who he said had an “ancestral dislike” of the UK because of his “part-Kenyan” heritage.

In 2015, Mr Johnson had to cancel planned public events in the West Bank because of security fears after he criticised backers of a boycott on Israeli goods, and he has previously described Hilary Clinton – US presidential hopeful – as having “a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”.

However, in his first comments since taking up the post, Mr Johnson set out his vision for Britain to be a more “global player”, and he said Brexit did not mean the UK was leaving Europe.
Credit: Telegraph, BBC, The Guardian