Opinion
Why is Marcus Fysh wasted in the Commons?
With his startling original research, he should be a professor of history
December 14, 2021 12:24
1 min read
With his startling original research, he should be a professor of history
December 14, 2021 12:24I have to confess to not having come across Marcus Fysh until yesterday. Mr Fysh is MP for Yeovil, which he has apparently represented since 2015.
But it seems Mr Fysh is not merely a backbench Tory MP. He appears also to have a second career as a historian, and a rather specialised and brilliant one at that.
Being interviewed on Radio 5 yesterday, Mr Fysh revealed an aspect of Nazi Germany that not a single historian, or indeed anyone who lived through the Third Reich, was aware of before.
The MP – let’s call him ‘prof’, since he clearly deserves renown as an academic historian – was being interviewed about his opposition to so-called ‘covid passports’, which will be voted on in the Commons tonight. These will allow people who have had a negative test for Covid, or have been vaccinated, to show their status if they want to enter a nightclub or an event with lots of people, such as a football match.
Mr Fysh based his opposition on their use in Nazi Germany. As he put it when questioned by Rachel Burden, “We are not a ‘papers please society’. This is not Nazi Germany, OK?”
Who knew that the Third Reich administered one of the most sophisticated anti-pandemic measures as an innovative public health policy? Mr Fysh has, I assume, come across hitherto unknown evidence showing the depth and scope of the measures taken by the Nazis to protect public health.
He must be congratulated on this breakthrough in historical research which will change our view of the Nazis, who were in reality it seems concerned above all with public health.
Mr Fysh is wasted on the Commons backbenches. He should be writing and teaching history, so we can all learn from his insight and calm deliberation.
Failing that, he could always try reading some history, keeping his wild comparisons to himself, and maybe even visit a concentration camp if he wants to see what Nazi public health actually looked like.