Written by Jon Tandy on 27 August 2007
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski has a lot to say on the Conservative website ‘Conservativehome’.
He finds it a useful place to use one of his favourite tactics-the highly personal attack. This time it is Labour MP Dennis McShane that Daniel writes about. In a piece posted about the EU on August 13th, our Tory MP says “I have a challenge for Mr MacShane as well if he is so fond of the EU why can’t he revert back to his real Polish name of Matjaszuk. He would have a little more credibility in my eyes if he held on to his Polish roots and used his real name…. I refused to change my name and the good people of Shrewsbury voted for me to represent them in Parliament. British people are extremely fair and will give outsiders a chance.”
I too am proud of my roots although they are nothing like as exotic. I am just proud to be Shrewsbury born and bred. I too agree British people are extremely fair and will give outsiders a chance. However Daniel Kawczynski is being extremely unfair in his attack on Dennis MacShane, who was born in Glasgow (and who adopted his mother’s maiden name and whose father was a Polish war hero).
Daniel was elected as Shrewsbury’s MP in 2005 under the Tory leadership of Michael Howard. In 1941 Michael Howard was born Michael Hecht, in Gorseinon, Wales, the son of Romanian shopkeeper Bernard Hecht. When Michael Howard was six, the family name Hecht was anglicised and changed to Howard.
So, to be fair, would Daniel Kawczynski like to either apologise to Dennis MacShane for this needless personal attack, or is he going to tell Michael Howard, a former Conservative Party leader, to change his surname back to Hecht?
On the subject of personal attacks Daniel Kawczynski also uses ‘Conservativehome’ to attack Chief Veterinary Officer, Debby Reynolds over the recent Foot and Mouth outbreak. He calls Dr Reynolds “A modern day political appointee who has failed in her duties”. I wrote a detailed letter to the Shropshire Star pointing out the many factual errors in this attack and why it was likely to damage local farmers, and the reputation of Shrewsbury. This has not yet been published and I hope the Shropshire Star print it very soon.
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