The Denis MacShane Prize 415


This is a genuine offer. I will pay £100 to any person who can provide a convincing reason why Denis MacShane’s expense fiddling, involving his creating false invoices, was not a criminal offence. Your argument does not have to be unanswerable – merely respectable. Up to three prizes will be given, for the three first and not essentially the same convincing arguments.

This competition specifically is open to employees of the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service; we would love to know their reasoning. It baffles me. I confess I can think of no single circumstance in this case that would prevent MacShane being convicted for theft and fraud. What is the answer?

Denis MacShane is a criminal. If he wants to try his chances with a jury, the libel courts are open to him and I am here.


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415 thoughts on “The Denis MacShane Prize

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  • thatcrab

    The blessed Eid does seem rather a tardy diversion – it could be savagely critiqued. I

    Exiled – I wish that you could be right and the Bush/Bliar era was “the golden age of the fraudsters, cheats and liars” , but it seems to be becoming more and more normal. I find Obama dazzlingly sophisticated and likeable, but he too is a blatant liar.

    Anyway, ive thought of a “Denis MacShane’s expense fiddling, involving his creating false invoices, was not a criminal offence”
    – It is because politicians are not payed in accordance with their importance and ability and demands of their position. An MPs salary of 60 odd grand, does not attract the caliber of people we expect to govern highly. To become a politician involves sacrificing much earning potential -in theory. Politicians have to legislate for and against all groups, the rich and the poor, but they are neither. They must resist the temptation of riches and govern without being corrupted by personal greed. Their salary does not satisfy the lust we many have, to be immune to financial worries, yet their rare skillset would trouser great bonuses in that parallel world of financial power. They settle for the soulful rewards of serving their country in its political engineroom. So when such as Denis MacShane steals money from his employer, the employer is merciful, recognising his difficulty with the saintly sacrifices of political office, and rather than press criminal charges, expects that the shameful fall from saintly political grace will be punishment enough. After all, its not about the money, it is about power with potentialy unlimited effect.

    Its complete bollocks designed to make politicians corruptable to extra financial incentives – the artificial low salary and artificial claims about politicans motives. But i propose it as the reason he is not to be prosecuted.

  • Boorach

    The essential test is a persons status(?). Given McShanes middle class status troughing is seen purely as a misdemeanour! Heaven help the sub-class single (for whatever reason) mother who fiddles a few pounds from the DSS to feed her children though.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Didn’t I tell you?:-

    “High Office does confer certain privileges – and – this, I believe, serves Denis well in this case.”

    So – Charles Crawford says…

    “Author – Charles Crawford

    Full disclosure: I know Denis MacShane quite well on professional colleagues terms. I worked with him on a wide range of difficult policy issues when he was Minister of State at the Foreign Office and I was British ambassador first in Serbia then in Poland. Latterly we have been on friendly Twitter terms”

    And Charles Crawford will be my character witness for MacShane.

    Still fighting to get that 100 quid.

  • guano

    Well off topic. Nothing to do with expenses, I apologise. Please listen to Melanie Phillips arguing the moral advantages of drone warfare in the Moral Maze.

  • Habbabkuk

    @ Karel at 6.48pm : “amici dei amici” ?? Shouldn’t that be “amici degli amici” ?

    Sorry to sound like Denis MacShane.

  • Courtenay Barnett

    As Charles Crawford says in defence of fair play and honest conduct:-

    ” Good grief! He bought several laptops! And books! Down he goes.”

    Well – come on now – he fiddled some 19 times over – just a little misdemeanor = 1 + 18 times over – but still just stemming from an initial misdemeanor…duh…huh?
    Repetition is the mother of learning, I was taught. So – theoretically he started with just one transgression – but – realistically he learned well and did it 19 times over.

  • Parky

    A small number of MPs were prosecuted, shown on TV going to court, given short jail sentences and let out well before the full term was completed, given a shed load of money when they left the Commons. Justice being seen to be done!

    Some like Hazel Blears for example, said very sorry, paid some of the money back and even appeared contrite on TV, and then as in her case even got re-elected by a loyal Labour working class electorate, the type who would be prosecuted for benefit fraud, no doubt about it.

    So what more do you want ?
    Job done and now back to normal business.
    You weren’t really expecting justice, honesty or integrity now surely ?

  • tony roma

    Israel’s Best Puppet Shamed like greville hello sonny janner.
    they are all doin it for the homeland while doin it for the kids

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Come on Murray. Christmas is on the way.

    Mark Golding and I have agreed that we both win – and the split of the winnings is therefore 50/50.

    I am contented to have my half share in the form of your book ” Murder in Samarkand…” autographed and sent to me for arrival before Christmas. You can give the rest of the 100 quid to Mark. We worked hard for that prize.

  • OldMark

    ‘it is a Shakespearean tragic flaw in the man’s character which led him to throw away a political career and reputation for the sake of a few thousand pounds.’

    MacShane’s downfall isn’t Shakespearean in the least, Jerome; his crude forgeries and wheedling self-justification resemble instead a seedy character from a novel by Graham Greene or Eric Ambler.

  • Jerôme

    OldMark, of course you’re right when it comes to the details, but isn’t it rather Shakespearean to see the career of a man who had “everything”, so to speak, who was riding high, brought crashing down because of a personal flaw (greed? overwheening pride allied to a sense of immunity?…)

    (Toutes proportions gardées, comme toujours)

  • Hang 'em High

    Denis McShane’s name can be added to that of Liam Fox.

    Israeli agents who got caught red-handed breaking the law but remain immune from prosecution because of something called ‘anti-Semtism’ – which protects the criminal, the corrupt, the polluter, the debaser and the liar from such mundane trivialities as civility and justice for fear of insulting fellow co-religionists (and their invented history) who constitute 0.002% of the Earths population, or 0.05% in the UK.

  • Mary

    Mrs Balls-Cooper does not want to preempt any decision by the police to investigate further! but she does think that it is a very serious matter. What a hypocrite. She has sat alongside MacShame since 1997 when she was first elected as one of the Bliar babes. MacShame arrived in the HoC 3 years earlier in a by-election following the death of the previous MP James Boyce thus:

    On Christmas Eve 1993 he was put on the transplant waiting list for a new heart after what he thought was a respiratory problem. He turned out to be suffering from an enlarged heart. On Burns Night 1994 he suffered a fatal heart attack at home in his living room. Over 500 people attended his memorial service at which a speaker was the then Labour Party leader John Smith, who, coincidentally, would also die of a heart attack later that year.

    !! You can see that haggis and whisky is not good for you. 🙂

  • Hang 'em High

    “There had been widespread surprise at comments by a senior Commons official who said correspondence from Mr MacShane to the standards watchdog were protected by parliamentary privilege and so could not be used in a criminal prosecution.”

    Translation: the level of chutzpah displayed by MacShane and his supporters has not been reflected in the response from the (anti-Semitic) public so we need to be seen to be doing something.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/9653224/MPs-expenses-Police-take-first-step-towards-charges-against-Denis-MacShane.html

  • amanfromMars

    How pathetic of Yvette Cooper to be so typically cowardly and evasive of an answer when asked of Craig’s leading question [re McShane’s criminal actions] on Andrew Marr a few moments ago.

    Tell us all everything we need to know about her values and suitability for future honest office.

    http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=3e9c549f934e2539c0a939fd551936f7&showtopic=19658&#entry262378 ….. William Hague in the paedophile spotlight? …… which is a valid enough question whenever the truth of suspicions are being suppressed and such shenanigans are always counter-productive and concentrate attentions, and also put innocent parties into the frame, which is reprehensible.

  • Hang 'em High

    Friends of Mr MacShane said the politician privately acknowledged that he always “sailed close to the wind” during his parliamentary career, but complained his treatment seemed unfair compared with others accused of misusing the MPs’ expenses system.

    Translation: Everyone knew that Mr MacShane was corrupt from head to toe because he so frequently paraded it around like a badge of honour, what has really upset the criminal is not that he has betrayed the voter, stolen from the tax-payer and destroyed peoples faith in politics, it is that he is not being treated fairly’ compared with the other criminals.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    That – the SNP establishing deep links with Israel – suggests that following on from the failure of instigate an investigation into the CIA/MI6 fix that was the Lockerbie trial (as Vronsky astutely pointed out) and the decision to remain part of the warmongering NATO military alliance, now the SNP are sending a signal to the Pentagon/CIA. This is Labour, reprised.

  • Snap

    It was actually an elaborate long-running sting operation for a newspaper to uncover how far one could still go with blatantly inappropriate invoices for expenses. As their undercover journalist he is able to claim exemption from illegality due to it being done for a greater public good, etc. etc… (ask Rebekkah for the finer details on how that works…)

  • Frazer

    Totally off topic…I will be in UK next week so will give you a ring….picking up a bottle of the favorite at Nairobi duty free…

  • Frazer

    @Courtney…I quite agree, but rather ask for the Catholic Orangemen as I think it a lot funnier and a better read !

  • nevermind

    Guest, isn’t it apt to bring this debate into the news, just now, when probity of Government and establishment are stressed to the ninepins over a massive scandal.

    National security only says Ken Clarke, well that is a term you can stretch from here to Oz.

    could that possibly include an exposure of Royals?

    Now let me ask you all this question, was Denis Mac Shane pushed into the lime light as a diversion? The known bent Labour politician, mere tabloid fodder whilst the memo’s and warnings against disclosing these long standing paedophiles are being handed out?

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