Boris and the Johnsons
Sir: Toby Young speaks of ‘the (Johnson) family’s roots as Turkish immigrants’ (‘Plan B’, 1 October). Though I’m always amused by what Toby writes, I have to point out that he is not always accurate. These are the facts. My paternal grandfather, Ali Kemal, was married to my grandmother, Winifred Blum. Winifred’s mother Margaret was English (née Johnson), while her father was Swiss. While Ali Kemal’s political and other commitments required him to remain behind in Constantinople, Winifred — already several months pregnant — came to England to visit her mother, and to have the baby in more tranquil surroundings. My father was born in Bournemouth on 4 September 1909. He was brought up in England by his grandmother, Margaret, since Winifred died of puerperal fever a few days after giving birth. He held a British passport (and no other) all his life. Ali Kemal stayed in Turkey. Since Turkey was on the other side during the Great War, Ali Kemal had little contact with his English family. He was assassinated in Turkey in 1922.
This story was very well documented in a BBC Who Do You Think You Are? programme about Boris. In addition to the Turkish dimension, the film ‘discovered’ the family’s Franco-German antecedents on my mother’s side and pointed out that Boris was a descendant of George II. If all this makes us Turkish immigrants, then I’m a Dutchman!
Stanley Johnson
Heathrow Airport
Sir: My prediction in the Independent on Sunday in 2002 that Boris Johnson might well one day make it to No. 10 — a full year before Toby Young made his wager on the subject — caused a bit of a stir. ‘Preposterous’ was a typical reaction, but few say that now. My biography, Just Boris, published this week, appears to have been met with hostility amongst those who feel that the Mayor of London should be spared the critical scrutiny applied to other senior politicians. In your last issue Mr Young appeared to fall into that trap by belittling the book, which later he admitted he had, at best, only just started reading. At that point, it had not even been published. Mr Young, whose school was recently opened by his friend, has long been a champion of Boris’s political ambitions.
Nothing wrong with that. I would be the first to recognise the Mayor’s many talents. Just Boris merely dares ask the question: have they been put to the best use?
Sonia Purnell
London W6
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Vote first, argue later
Sir: My friend William Hague (‘There are no exits’, 1 October) says that ‘there should be powers that are returned to this country’. Oh dear, another of Her Majesty’s most senior ministers who cannot realise the utter sacrosanctity of the EU doctrine called acquis communautaire. This doctrine absolutely insists that no power or authority transferred from the national to the EU can, under any circumstances whatsoever, be returned. You might as well ask the Vatican to repudiate the Trinity. It makes more sense for a British government to achieve from the people a massive mandate on a single issue (such as the restoration of British law as the supreme law in these islands) by referendum and then inform Brussels with regret that as a democracy we cannot ignore such figures. Civilised negotiations for a reformed relationship could and would begin, but on the basis of strength not weakness. Of course, this would run straight into a wall of hysterical resistance from the very department over which Mr Hague presides.
Frederick Forsyth
Buckinghamshire
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Euro wise, pound foolish
Sir: Can Peter Oborne and Frances Weaver (‘The Guilty Men’, 24 September) name one clear benefit that Britain has derived specifically from retaining sterling? The current crisis has vindicated the two key arguments for the euro. First, that currency manipulations are the most significant barriers to sound free trade, the fount of growth. Second, that Europe must be more united economically, and thus politically, if we are to have the slightest chance of competing with the rising giants of Asia.
As for Britain, will Oborne and Weaver point to fiscal rectitude? Or to the devaluation which has reduced our national wealth by nearly 30 per cent? Or to sovereignty, when this government’s entire economic strategy, and the future of our major industries, is dependent on decisions taken in Berlin and Paris over which we have no influence, as the Prime Minister’s increasingly hysterical pleas demonstrate? Our isolation has made us potential victims, without the purchase in Washington and Beijing of the eurozone.
I therefore censure Oborne and Weaver’s ‘guilty men’ more harshly even than they do. The Eurosceptics ‘possess the field’ because most of their opponents ran away, preferring personal and party advantage to proclaiming the national interest. But then the West, generally, is suffering a failure of democratic leadership and legitimacy.
John Stevens
London SW1
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O what a lovely war!
Sir: Although almost everyone’s image of the first world war may be one of squalid mud trenches and pointless military massacre (Books, 1 October), some participants remembered their war service as a ‘happy time’, as Lord Carrington remembered his in the later war. My grandfather was a railwayman who volunteered in 1914 and became the Company Sergeant Major of a railway company in the Royal Engineers. He received a DCM and was mentioned in dispatches. During the war he had more men under him and found his efforts more obviously recognised than he did in civilian life.
Colin Dauris
By email
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