British PM poses with blacked-up Morris dancers at Banbury Folk Festival



There are blacking-up traditions in many European countries (e.g. Britain, Germany and The Netherlands) that long precede America's 19th century black minstrels but the din created by modern day American Leftists over their past tends to obscure that.  So people in Europe need to stress the different origins of their  traditions

The Prime Minister was enjoying a day out with his family at the Banbury Folk Festival near his constituency in Oxfordshire on Saturday when he was collared by the Foxs Morris troupe.  He happily posed with the dancers, holding his daughter Florence in his arms.

In April Jack Straw's son Will, who is standing as a parliamentary candidate in next year's general election, caused a stir when he posed with a similar group, with some people branding him "racist" on Twitter.

Martin de Vine, founder and Squire of the Foxs Morris dancers, said: "David Cameron was having a coffee and we saw him and just asked if he would have a picture taken.

"We dance in the style of Border Morris, and we black our faces because farm labourers who were out of work in the winter months would go around begging, performing a dance in return for money.

"They blacked their faces with soot because it was illegal to beg and they didn't want to be recognised. It was a disguise, in the same way that the leader of the troupe wears a top hat and is called the squire to take the mickey out of the local squire.

"It's not racist and offence is never taken. People from other cultural backgrounds don't see it as that at all. We have had an Arab person dancing with us in the past - it's not seen as racist."

The term border morris refers to the English/Welsh border where the dancing originated.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said of the photograph: "I don't see it as something on which any kind of comment is needed." He said the Prime Minister shared that view.

SOURCE