The riddle of Boris's slave roots

The fact that Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate for London Mayor, is a buffoon is almost a simple statement of fact. It's a given that even his supporters would find hard to argue with. Indeed, they'd probably cite it as one of his most redeeming features.

This is a man who refers to Africans as 'piccaninnies' and then wonders why people might question whether or not he is a racist. Of course, Boris's greatest electoral shield is his ability to say,"Golly gosh, was that out of line?" and have everyone charmed by his buffoonery.

But the old Etonian has now made a claim that even his most avid supporters must find slightly odd. He claims he's descended from slaves.

Challenged over whether he considered himself posh, Johnson insisted that he was 'middle class and proud of it', before adding: 'I am the proud offspring of Turkish immigrants. I want you to know that my great-great-grandmother was a slave, so put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr Livingstone. She was a Circassian slave [from a region in southern Russia], and she was sold: my great-great-grandfather literally purchased her.'

Researching his family history had, he added, taught him 'how swiftly you discover literally hundreds of immediate ancestors whose names are lost in dateless deaths and who were illiterate paupers.' He said it was 'not clear' exactly how his great-great-grandmother had transformed herself from slave to wife but added: 'This is not in any way casting aspersions on my great-great-grandfather. He wasn't a slave owner, he was a slave marrier. He liberated her: he paid the price of her manumission [release].'

The problem for Boris is that he makes this claim at the very time when he is participating in "Who Do You Think You Are?" a BBC programme which examines the family tree of celebrities, often with very interesting results.

However, the BBC programme have been unable to find any proof to back Boris's astonishing claim.

But intriguingly, when the BBC studied Johnson's story for a forthcoming edition of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees, it was unable to find proof.

A BBC source said that without the paper trail to back it up, the tale had to be treated simply as family folklore and would not figure in the programme. 'It's not in the film. They can only document the truth that can be backed up by documentation. It's just one of his old family tales,' said the source.

There's nothing "intriguing" about it, we are dealing with a moron. Which public figure, running for office, would make a claim like that without having solid evidence to back it back it up? Only Boris.

The notion that this man might someday be allowed to run a city as important as London fills me with utter horror.

The bookies are now saying that Boris is actually the front runner. Who are the people who vote for such a man?

Here's an example of the self confessed "great incompetence" of Boris and the way he manages to use his buffoonery to charm his way out of any hole:



Here he displays his sporting skills:



This man may one day be London's Mayor. God help us all.

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Tags: Boris Johnson, London Mayoral election, Tory candidate