CONSERVATIVE MP and Minister of State for International Trade Greg Hands has come under fire for a bizarre tweet about a German kebab shop.
Hands was, you might remember, the former Treasury chief negotiator who famously went on holiday to France the week before Scotland's critical fiscal framework deal was to be agreed.
He shared a tweet with an image of a German kebab shop in London, asking "How long before we have German Fish & Chips?".
How long before we have German Fish & Chips? pic.twitter.com/8OmvAytgJQ
— Greg Hands (@GregHands) October 23, 2017
The tweet, which presumably had something to do with German immigrants coming into this country and stealing our kebabs, was quickly mocked by Twitter users.
It was pointed out to Hands that there is nothing surprising about "German" kebabs as the kebab, in fact, originated in Germany.
The man who was credited with inventing it, Kadir Nurman, sold his first doner kebab in West Berlin in 1972.
While it was already a tradition to eat grilled, skewered meat in Turkey where he had been born, it was Nurman that adapted the dish into what we recognise today as a kebab. Nurman passed away in 2003.
However, the mockery of Greg Hands didn't stop there as Twitter users went on to point out that not only was his outrage over a German kebab shop unjustified, his example of 'German fish and chips' was equally daft.
Why? Because battered fish and chips did not originate in Britain either.
It was imported into the country in the 1800s by Jewish immigrants and originated as a fried food eaten cold on the Shabbat in Eastern Europe.
You'd think that the Minister for International Trade would know a thing or two about that ... but we guess not.
Later he tweeted: "This tweet this morning has kept literally thousands of Lefties occupied, seeking a wider putative meaning!"
@mrdavidwhitley responded: "If it helps, Greg, I'm not a lefty and I think you made a complete fool of yourself."
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