This is a moment to commend MacShane as an anti-totalitarian, indefatigable, outspoken politician and an antidote to the bland
Denis MacShane, who today became the fifth of my former colleagues to be sent to prison for expenses fraud, deserves to be remembered for a good deal more than the sad demise of his political career. Although I do not condone his actions, nor do I share his enthusiasm for all the causes he has espoused, this is perhaps the moment to put in a good word for MacShane, whom I have known for more than 30 years, as a journalist, a fellow MP and latterly as a fellow minister at the Foreign Office.
In an age when blandness and insularity is increasingly the key to political success, MacShane stands out for the range of his interests and the enthusiasm – and on occasions downright recklessness – with which he embraced causes that were dear to him. If there is one consistent theme that runs through his life's work, both as a journalist and as a politician, it is active opposition to totalitarianism and racial prejudice in all its forms. His energy and output have been prodigious – he is the author of books on subjects diverse as Kosovo, the struggles for freedom in South Africa and Poland, as well as biographies of two of his political heroes, Ted Heath and Francois Mitterrand. As policy director for 12 years of the Swiss-based International Metalworkers Federation he was active in support of workers in struggle around the world.
He is a passionate pro-European. As Europe minister at the Foreign Office, he was in his element. Unusually for a British politician, he is fluent in several languages, which gave him a credibility with his opposite numbers in Europe that most British ministers lacked. At times his passion for the EU exceeded that of the government of which he was a member. From time to time the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, would be on the receiving end of complaints from Downing Street about MacShane's extra curricular activities in Europe.
Earlier he had got into trouble for describing then Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez as "a ranting, populist demagogue". Nothing wrong with that, you may say, except that he was at the time the Foreign Office minister responsible for relations with Latin America, and Chávez had just been the victim of a failed coup attempt.
And it probably wasn't very wise for a politician with ambitions to describe Gordon Brown's famous five tests for entry into the EU single currency as "a bit of a giant red-herring".
The other great theme running through MacShane's career is a tendency to live dangerously. I first got to know him in the mid-1970s when we were both subeditors in the newsroom of the BBC World Service. He had been sent into exile following an incident at BBC radio in the West Midlands, where he had been a producer. One day, in any effort to liven up a dull phone-in, he called in posing as a member of the public and denounced the former Tory home secretary Reginald Maudling as a "crook". Maudling, needless to say, threatened to sue and MacShane was dismissed, later resurfacing in the World Service newsroom. He owed his survival to vigorous lobbying on his behalf by the National Union of Journalists, of which he was an active member (he later became president).
Arguably, it was his passion for the EU that brought about his downfall. Out of office he devised what turned out to be a fraudulent scheme for funding his continued forays in Europe. If anything can be said in mitigation, perhaps it is that he was using the money to fund a cause, rather than to fill his own pockets, a point acknowledged by the judge who sentenced him.
MacShane is nothing if not resilient. Nor is he without friends. The causes he has espoused and his characteristic good humour have endeared him to many. For all that he is the author of his own misfortune, I take this opportunity to salute him. Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.
Denis MacShane, who today became the fifth of my former colleagues to be sent to prison for expenses fraud, deserves to be remembered for a good deal more than the sad demise of his political career. Although I do not condone his actions, nor do I share his enthusiasm for all the causes he has espoused, this is perhaps the moment to put in a good word for MacShane, whom I have known for more than 30 years, as a journalist, a fellow MP and latterly as a fellow minister at the Foreign Office.
In an age when blandness and insularity is increasingly the key to political success, MacShane stands out for the range of his interests and the enthusiasm – and on occasions downright recklessness – with which he embraced causes that were dear to him. If there is one consistent theme that runs through his life's work, both as a journalist and as a politician, it is active opposition to totalitarianism and racial prejudice in all its forms. His energy and output have been prodigious – he is the author of books on subjects diverse as Kosovo, the struggles for freedom in South Africa and Poland, as well as biographies of two of his political heroes, Ted Heath and Francois Mitterrand. As policy director for 12 years of the Swiss-based International Metalworkers Federation he was active in support of workers in struggle around the world.
He is a passionate pro-European. As Europe minister at the Foreign Office, he was in his element. Unusually for a British politician, he is fluent in several languages, which gave him a credibility with his opposite numbers in Europe that most British ministers lacked. At times his passion for the EU exceeded that of the government of which he was a member. From time to time the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, would be on the receiving end of complaints from Downing Street about MacShane's extra curricular activities in Europe.
Earlier he had got into trouble for describing then Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez as "a ranting, populist demagogue". Nothing wrong with that, you may say, except that he was at the time the Foreign Office minister responsible for relations with Latin America, and Chávez had just been the victim of a failed coup attempt.
And it probably wasn't very wise for a politician with ambitions to describe Gordon Brown's famous five tests for entry into the EU single currency as "a bit of a giant red-herring".
The other great theme running through MacShane's career is a tendency to live dangerously. I first got to know him in the mid-1970s when we were both subeditors in the newsroom of the BBC World Service. He had been sent into exile following an incident at BBC radio in the West Midlands, where he had been a producer. One day, in any effort to liven up a dull phone-in, he called in posing as a member of the public and denounced the former Tory home secretary Reginald Maudling as a "crook". Maudling, needless to say, threatened to sue and MacShane was dismissed, later resurfacing in the World Service newsroom. He owed his survival to vigorous lobbying on his behalf by the National Union of Journalists, of which he was an active member (he later became president).
Arguably, it was his passion for the EU that brought about his downfall. Out of office he devised what turned out to be a fraudulent scheme for funding his continued forays in Europe. If anything can be said in mitigation, perhaps it is that he was using the money to fund a cause, rather than to fill his own pockets, a point acknowledged by the judge who sentenced him.
MacShane is nothing if not resilient. Nor is he without friends. The causes he has espoused and his characteristic good humour have endeared him to many. For all that he is the author of his own misfortune, I take this opportunity to salute him. Reported by guardian.co.uk 5 hours ago.