7 facts you didn’t know about BoJo
Originally, I didn’t want to write such a “Several facts you didn’t know about…”-post on this blog, but when browsing the internet to catch up on the latest Brexit-developments, I came across a page with some funny and interesting facts on Boris Johnson, the leader of the “Leave”-campaign. That was just too tempting and I started to find out as much as possible about Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London. Especially since recently there is no clear tendency as to how the Brexit-referendum will turn out, in the end it is possible that the decision of the yet undecided will stand and fall with the charisma of the leading figures. Here, the Brexit-supporters might have a slight advantage…at least if you have a favour for catchy slogans and peculiar hair cuts ;-)
But let’s see what most people probably don’t know about our one and only BoJo:
- His full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. His grandmother, Yvonne Eileen Williams, was a great-granddaughter of Caroline de Pfeffel, who, in turn, was an illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Wurttemberg, a… — drum roll— German. Seems all these rather “special” leaders of nowadays have German roots in some way…who does that remind me of…ehm, similar haircut, similar hair colour…can’t think of the name…was it Drumpf or something? ;D Somehow alarming, isn’t it? For what it’s worth, the German prince was a direct descendant of King George II.
- Speaking of family connections…Boris and Prime Minister David Cameron are eighth cousins.
- In the year 2008, Boris had to hand out a cigar case he had found five years before that in the debris of a house in Baghdad after it had been bombed in the Iraq war. The house belonged to Tariq Aziz, a close advisor of Saddam Hussein. What remains unclear to this day is what BoJo was doing there in the first place…
- Boris was born in New York in the United States of America, and could thus technically candidate for presidency in the US…oh BoJo, please don’t… But again, who does that remind me of? It’s almost starting to get scary…
5. BoJo always dreamed of having a perfect twin and took part in a secret cloning programme so that now, there is two of them… Just kidding :D The buddy next to him is his father, Stanley Johnson. While this one has obviously passed on his haircut to Boris, they don’t necessarily share their opinion in European matters. Stanley has not only worked for the European Commission, he still is against the Brexit, especially for environmental reasons.
6. David Cameron and Boris Johnson were members of the elitist all-male Oxford dining group The Bullingdon Club at the same time. Other members included e.g. George Osborne. Today, the club is rather controversial and seen as the equivalent of “almost superhuman” arrogance. It inspired the film “The Riot Club”.
7. Boris is not only politician, but also a journalist and author of several books. His works include historical or political portraits (e.g. “The Churchill Factor”, “Johnson’s Life of London”, “The Dream of Rome”) and also his first novel called “Seventy-two Virgins”. For those of you who think: “Wow, a novel by Boris Johnson? I GOTTA read that!” I put the Amazon order link below:
So, those were the 7 “secret” facts about BoJo I found most interesting and I have to say, even if many of them somehow fitted my usual picture, they added some interesting facets to the man representing the Brexit-movement.
For more of these side facts, check:
