Boris Johnson has criticised a publisher’s rewriting of some language in Roald Dahl’s stories by reciting a song by the Oompa-Loompas.
The former prime minister expressed his “irritation at wokeness and political correctness” after Puffin made extensive changes to the author’s work to remove language it deemed offensive.
Johnson said “people should be vigilant about freedom of speech” but insisted nothing will ever stop him reciting Dahl’s original words. He added that the public’s freedom to call him a “wanker” while he was out jogging showed what a “wonderful country” Britain was.
He also warned against returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece, saying it would leave a “huge gap” in the British Museum’s ability to tell the story of world history.
Giving a speech in London at the Global Soft Power Summit on Thursday, Johnson said: “I’m conscious people in Britain today are worried about a sense that they are being muzzled.
“And, of course people should be vigilant about freedom of speech when we’re bowdlerising Roald Dahl.
“But nothing and no one is going to stop me reciting the song of the Oompa-Loompas about Augustus Gloop, which you all remember: Augustus Gloop, Augustus Gloop, the great big greedy nincompoop.”
He added: “In all this debate, we should never confuse our feelings of irritation at wokeness or political correctness with the genuine terror inspired by authoritarian systems where journalists are shot for insulting politicians, where they are not hailed for exposing corruption but jailed.”
The Oompa-Loompas are a team of Willy Wonka’s workers, first appearing in Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who were brought by the confectionery mogul from Loompaland.
Puffin hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of Dahl’s texts to make sure the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, resulting in extensive changes. But it later announced it would also release the original books as part of a “classic collection”.
Speaking of the abuse he receives when exercising, Johnson said: “I thought, what a wonderful country it is that we live in and how privileged I am to be shouted at on my morning run.
“It shows how minimal is the distance between the government and the governed.”
He expressed his view that the the Parthenon marbles should remain in Britain, as the British Museum “tells the story of the evolution of the human spirit”. As such, “if you give back the Elgin marbles to Greece, then you leave a huge gap in that narrative”, he said.
He added: “And, above all, you have no answer in the years ahead to the theoretical claims for restitution from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Nigeria, everywhere whose treasures are housed in Bloomsbury.
“And suddenly in trying to please the world and correct thinking, you’ve deprived the world of one of its great treasures and cut some vital panels from its great pageant of human progress.”
