From
the Guardian
Boris Johnson in his own words
The wannabe mayor on race, sex and politics
On homosexuality
"Gay marriage can only ever be a ludicrous parody of the real thing."
· Daily Telegraph, 2005
"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."
· From his book, Friends, Voters, Countrymen, 2001
"We don't want our children being taught some rubbish about homosexual marriage being the same as normal marriage, and that is why I am more than happy to support Section 28."
· Daily Telegraph, 2000
"The clerics gave us [journalists] a wigging for being so mean to the Church of England ... Why did we draw attention to tricky subjects like homosexuality, aka the Pulpit Poofs issue?"
· The Spectator, 2000
"I'm not bisexual so far ... not that I would condemn myself if I later discovered I were."
· Daily Telegraph, 2008
On Africa
"No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, 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."
· In 2002, on Tony Blair's visit to the Democratic of Republic of Congo, Daily Telegraph
"Right, let's go and look at some more piccaninnies."
· Reported remark, while visiting Uganda, to Swedish Unicef workers and their black driver, the Observer, 2003
On the Commonwealth
"It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies."
· Daily Telegraph, 2002
George Bush and Iraq
"He liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me."
· Daily Telegraph, 2004
"The Americans were perfectly happy to go ahead and whack Saddam merely on the grounds that he was a bad guy, and that Iraq and the world would be better off without him; and so indeed was I."
· Daily Telegraph, 2003
On Islam
"The most viciously sectarian of all religions in its heartlessness towards unbelievers."
· The Spectator, 2005
On race
"I'm down with the ethnics. You can't out-ethnic me, Nihal ... My children are a quarter Indian, so put that in your pipe and smoke it."
· To Nihal Arthanayake, BBC Asian Network, 2008
On Liverpool
"A society that has become hooked on grief and likes to wallow in a sense of
vicarious victimhood."
· A Spectator editorial, 2004 (Johnson didn't write the editorial, but he approved it)
On stag hunting
"I remember the guts streaming, and the stag turds spilling out on to the grass from within the ventral cavity ... This hunting is best for the deer."
· From his book Lend Me Your Ears
Good guy.
