Tory Cabinet Minister’s bullsh*t means he can’t have noticed the screen right behind him [VIDEO]
Conservative Cabinet Minister Liam Fox can’t have noticed the screen right behind him on the Sophy Ridge On Sunday show on 12 March.
The Secretary for International Trade outright denied sending out an embarrassing tweet on Britain’s colonial history. He should’ve glanced behind him:
The MP for North Somerset interrupted Sky host Sophy Ridge to “clarify”:
I didn’t send out the tweet.
Unaware of the image behind him, he continued:
It was taken from a speech I gave about a year and a half ago and it was tweeted out, I think, by The Guardian.
Read on...
Right. As well as on the screen, the tweet remains on his page:
"The United Kingdom, is one of the few countries in the European Union that does not need to bury its 20th century history" #scc16
— Dr Liam Fox MP (@LiamFox) March 4, 2016
Hold on, colonialism?
And the embarrassment goes further, given the nature of the tweet. When Fox first made the comment, The Canary offered him a crash course in Britain’s colonial history.
But it appears Britain is already well on its way in burying the past. In 2012, an official review concluded that thousands of documents showing the horrific crimes committed in the dying days of the British empire had either been “systematically destroyed” or hidden away for 50 years in a secret archive.
The treatment of people from India is one example. Under the British empire, up to 29 million Indian people died of starvation as wheat was sent over to Britain in the midst of famine. In 1943, Winston Churchill diverted medical aid and food away from starving citizens in British-controlled Bengal, sentencing up to four million Bengalis to death in the process.
Back to school for Fox
The crimes of the British empire were extensive. And social media users had a few other lessons for the Cabinet Minister:
Partitions of Ireland, India, Palestine and Cyprus. Deportation of Chagos islanders. Mau Mau uprising. Malayan "emergency".
— Robert (@ClatchardCraig) July 17, 2016
[email protected] 'The United Kingdom is one of the few countries in the European Union that does not need to bury its 20th century history #scc16 pic.twitter.com/g2ilNjP09Q
— Lauren AlderⓋ (@LaurenAlder) March 6, 2017
There was something else striking about the Sky News gaffe. Host Sophy Ridge did not even correct Fox’s bald-faced lie. And what makes this worse is the worrying impact comments like Fox’s can have, combined with a blinkered education system. A 2016 YouGov poll revealed that 44% of Brits are still proud of the country’s history of colonialism, while only 21% regret it.
There are innovations, for example, that Britons should be proud of. But colonialism isn’t one of them. We must strive to educate people on the crimes of the past. Otherwise, they could be repeated.
Get Involved!
– See international articles at The Canary Global.
– Visit our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up with our international coverage.
– Support The Canary.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot
We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support
The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.
The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.
So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.
