- Daniel Kawczynski
-
Daniel Kawczynski MP 
Kawczynski in May 2008 during a demonstration as the House of Commons debated the Embryology Bill. Member of Parliament
for Shrewsbury and AtchamIncumbent Assumed office
5 May 2005Preceded by Paul Marsden Majority 7,944 (15%) Personal details Born 24 January 1972 Nationality British Political party Conservative Alma mater University of Stirling Website www.daniel4shrewsbury.co.uk Daniel Robert Kawczynski (born 24 January 1972) is the Conservative Party Member for Parliament (MP) for Shrewsbury and Atcham in Shropshire, England.[1]
Contents
Biography
Kawczynski's family came to Britain from Poland in 1940, after Poland's invasion by the Wehrmacht.[2]
Kawczynski was educated at St George's College, an independent school (at the time for boys only), in Weybridge in Surrey, followed by the University of Stirling in the city of Stirling in the Central Region of Scotland, where he read Business Studies with Languages,[3] and was President of the University Conservative Association in 1991.
After graduating, Kawczynski became an international account manager in the telecommunications industry, a position he held for ten years.[3]
Parliamentary career
Kawczynski first stood for Parliament in the 2001 general election for Ealing Southall and came a distant second with 18% of the vote.[4] However, he won the seat for Shrewsbury and Atcham at the 2005 general election, succeeding Labour's Paul Marsden with 37.7% of the vote, compared to 34.1% for Labour and 22.8% for the Liberal Democrats.[5] Kawczynski was re-elected at the 2010 general election with 43.9% of the vote, compared to 29.0% for the Liberal Democrats in second.[6]
At 6 feet 8½ inches (204 cm), Kawczynski is believed to be the tallest MP ever to sit in Parliament.[7]
He sat as a Member of both the International Development Select Committee and the Justice Select Committee. He was criticised by the Birmingham Post in 2009 for failing to regularly attend the meetings of the Select Committees to which he had been appointed.[8] Indeed Kawczynski is recorded as having attended only 12.5 per cent of all Justice Select Committee meetings and 31.3 per cent of International Development Select Committee meetings during the last Parliamentary session. Kawczynski no longer sits on any Select Committees following his failure to get elected to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Kawczynski is a keen supporter of fox hunting [9] and advocates keeping the First Past the Post voting system.[10] He is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. In 2007, he signed an Early Day Motion that welcomed the "positive contribution made to the health of the nation by the NHS homeopathic hospitals".[11] In May 2008, he voted to lower the abortion time limit to 12 weeks[12] and voted against a House of Lords amendment to abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel under common law.[13] The abortion time limit vote failed and the blasphemy vote passed. He is a Vice-Chairman of Conservative Friends of Poland.[14]
In 2006, Kawczyski briefly appeared on the Better Know A District segment of American satirical programme The Colbert Report.[citation needed] In October 2009, Kawczynski appeared on The Doha Debates as a delegate supporting the motion of "This house deplores the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi".[15]
In 2010, Kawczynski published a book called Seeking Gaddafi about Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Political blogger Paul Staines (AKA Guido Fawkes) has accused Kawczynski of using 5000 word essay submissions by interviewees for an unpaid internship as the basis of his book commenting on the inconsistency of style throughout the book and similarity of chapter titles to the submitted essays.[16] When Kawczynski recently advertised another unpaid internship[17] for his new book entitled Saudi Arabia, Staines claimed that this was "nothing but a con."[16]
Personal life
Kawczynski has recently divorced, with access rights to his daughter, Alexis. He lives in Picklescott, Church Stretton in the south Shropshire hills.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Daniel Kawczynski". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/517.stm. Retrieved 2009-01-13.[dead link]
- ^ "Daniel Kawczynski: The tallest MP in in Parliament". The Daily Telegraph. 2009-01-21. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4309742/Daniel-Kawczynski-The-tallest-MP-in-in-Parliament.html. Retrieved 2009-01-22.[dead link]
- ^ a b "Kawczynski, Daniel". politics.co.uk. http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/mps/party-politics/conservatives/kawczynski-daniel-$452146.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ "Ealing Southall". London: guardian.co.uk. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-895,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ "Shrewsbury and Atcham". London: guardian.co.uk. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/hoc/constituency/0,,-1286,00.html. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
- ^ "Shrewsbury & Atcham". BBC News Online. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/e01.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-17.
- ^ "Conservative MP 'is tallest ever'", BBC News, 21 June 2005. Accessed 3 April 2007.
- ^ "Erdington and Shrewsbury MPs under-fire for non-attendance". http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2009/04/09/erdington-and-shrewsbury-mps-under-fire-for-non-attendance-65233-23346652/.
- ^ Bowcott, Owen (2010-04-29). "Hunting ban should be repealed early in Conservative government, says Tory MP". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/29/hunting-ban-conservatives-daniel-kawczynski/.
- ^ "Daniel Kawczynski would retain First Past the Post". http://www.epolitix.com/mpwebsites/mppressreleases/mppressreleasedetails/newsarticle/first-past-the-post-an-open-letter-to-david-cameron///mpsite/daniel-kawczynski/.
- ^ "EDM 1240". http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=33006.
- ^ "Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill — Change abortion limit from 24 weeks to 12 weeks — rejected — 20 May 2008 at 22:00". http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2008-05-20&number=199&mpn=Daniel_Kawczynski.
- ^ "Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill: Blasphemy — 6 May 2008 at 21:45". http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2008-05-06&number=170&display=allvotes.
- ^ Conservative Friends of Poland website
- ^ "Daniel Kawczynski enters the den of very mad dog '", The Daily Telegraph, 19 May 2009.
- ^ a b Paul Staines (October 19th, 2011). "Tory MP Wants Unpaid Slaves For Book Content Harvesting". http://order-order.com/2011/10/19/tory-mp-wants-unpaid-slaves-for-book-content-harvesting/.
- ^ http://www.w4mpjobs.org/JobDetails.aspx?jobid=31968
External links
- Daniel Kawczynski's official website
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Daniel Kawczynski MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Daniel Kawczynski MP
- BBC Politics page
Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded by
Paul MarsdenMember of Parliament for Shrewsbury and Atcham
2005–presentIncumbent Categories:- 1972 births
- Living people
- British people of Polish descent
- UK MPs 2005–2010
- UK MPs 2010–
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- Politics of Shropshire
- Conservative Party (UK) MPs
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for constituencies in Shropshire
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
