Denis MacShane Rotherham’s oleaginous and very greedy Member of Parliament, cast adrift by Labour with the suspension of the whip last October, has announced that his phone was hacked and he would be issuing proceedings against one of his old employers! See ‘Tiser here.
Labour sources confirm that MacShane is most unlikely to remain a Labour MP and at some point a selection battle to replace MacShane, at a by-election perhaps, but certainly for the next General Election. The smart money seems to be being placed on a local rising star in Labours firmament, but a note of caution, Rotherham Constituency has been here before, last time the ‘local boy’ was Peter Thirlwall, remember what happened then?
The Rotherham Constituency Labour Party is in turmoil I hear, with many General Management Committee members in open revolt, no longer even prepared to speak to Denis and the one thing they all agree upon is that Denis must go. They are thoroughly fed up with the antics and plain greed of their MP and their embarrassment at Denis’s disgrace is manifest.
Denis MacShane is a past President of the National Union of Journalists and has form for abusing his influence abominably, no more so than when he threatens fellow Journos with NUJ discipline if they ask awkward questions along the lines regularly rehearsed in the excellent and informative MacShane Files. In short, as well as his many other failings, being a ‘low down bully’ can be added to the list of his calumnies.
The only person who thinks that he can survive this is Denis himself! He is about to discover that he is wrong! No one is above the party and he will be required to fall on his sword once the Met police and the CPS pull their fingers out, whether he likes it or not!
Is his legal battle to come with his former employers, just another attempt to milk the system for all he can get to go towards a comfortable retirement paid for up to now, largely by us, as is the ‘House in London’ from which he receives rental income, that we paid for along with his property just off Moorgate that he ripped us off for ‘office rent’, to the tune of £125,000 in five years! That exceeds the properties worth, even possibly today!
Only Denis would have thought it a good idea to remain in the House of Commons after last years General Elections. The exposure of Eric Illsley, almost as soon as the last vote was counted, did not bode well for Denis and by October he had himself been suspended from the Labour Whip. Unlike Jim Devine, who at least misused real invoices, Denis’s were considerably more amateur than that!
Why did he stay? Hubris and greed I should imagine. He could easily have left with his reputation intact and still made a living from writing. Another benefit for Denis would have been his long term relationship with Joan Smith, which might have survived if Joan had remained in blissful ignorance of Denis’s greed and deceptions. No one would have remained interested for long in the past claims of an ex MP and the scale of his greed would not have become public.
Denis’s brother, Edmund Matyjaszek the poet and School Headmaster must despair of his younger brother’s activities, as he rather forcibly included him as the provider of ‘research and translation services’ that never were!
Finally, I wonder whether they will let him out of prison to fight his civil case against News Group Newspapers? An amusing thought, I must say!
Accidental Anarchist
Notes: **He has refused to answer the many questions put to him. When he had the opportunity to answer his critics last year, what did Denis do? He ran away! Cowardice, can therefore be added to the lengthy list of MacShane’s shortcomings.
