At what point did Tories realise they could lie or get things wrong, but just pretend otherwise?
It's not like we aren't all used to the spin and backtracking that takes place in politics, but there's got to be a line: and if there is a line, Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski is so far beyond it he couldn't claw his way back if he tried.
The Shrewsbury MP dropped an absolute clanger on Twitter when he declared that there was "No Marshall Plan for us" following WW2.
Britain helped to liberate half of Europe. She mortgaged herself up to eye balls in process. No Marshall Plan for us only for Germany. We gave up war reparations in 1990. We put £370 billion into EU since we joined. Watch the way ungrateful EU treats us now. We will remember.
— Daniel Kawczynski (@DKShrewsbury) February 2, 2019
Of course, he's completely wrong.
The Marshall Plan was a 1948 American initiative to aid Western Europe following the war. The United States gave over $12 billion (which would be over $100 billion by today's standards) to help rebuild Western European economies.
And despite Kawczynski's claim, the UK received about 20 percent of that money... which was more than anybody else did.
So not only is he wrong. He's about as wrong as it's possible to be.
Despite over 10,000 reponses to his tweet explaining that, he's refusing to back down. He went on to claim the money was not "aid" but a "commercial loan", which is also not correct.
He then said "The tweet was actually talking about all the things that Britain has done for Europe. Let's not forget we liberated part of Europe in the Second World War."
Aye, well that explains it...
Meanwhile, lecturer in international politics at Aberystwyth University, Dr Warren Dockter, has made clear that "Dan is categorically wrong about the Marshall Plan".
Honestly, is it even an argument from a Brexiteer MP if it doesn't mention the war and make basic errors?
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