Pensioners pleased with Labour

Campaigning in Herringthorpe with pensioners telling me how much Labour has done for them!

One gentleman was sitting outside on quite a cool afternoon – why? Because he had the oven on cooking his dinner and, as his council bungalow has just been refurbished and re-insulated, it’s just too hot to be inside!!

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Out campaigning with our youngest member!

Omar is just 18 and will be voting Labour for the first time on 6th May. A student of politics at TRC he’s very clear on his political reasons for supporting Labour and is also a very keen campaigner!!

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My Declaration of Interests as a parliamentary candidate

The Committee for Standards in Public Life has recommended that candidates at parliamentary elections should publish a declaration of interests. Consideration is being given to whether this should be a statutory requirement at future elections.

For the 2010 General Election the Ministry of Justice has been required to produce guidance for the VOLUNTARY publication of such a declaration.

As a Labour Party candidate I fully support the decision of the Labour Party to make the publication of such a declaration a REQUIREMENT of all of  its candidates.

I am publishing this declaration on my election website in order that electors in my Rotherham constituency have access to this information.

The address of my website is included in every piece of my campaign literature and during this campaign I estimate over 100,000 pieces of my campaign literature will be in circulation.

Declaration of Interests form
Name of candidate	DENIS MACSHANE
Constituency:	ROTHERHAM
Political party:	THE LABOUR PARTY
Date of publication:	14TH APRIL 2010
CATEGORY	RELEVANT INTERESTS
(a)        Other paid jobs and whether I intend to continue to hold them, if elected	None
(b)        positions of responsibility in some types of organisation, even if unpaid, and whether I intend to continue to hold them, if elected.	Member of Council of Royal Institute of International Affairs and Fabian Society. Parton of various Rotherham Charities and Voluntary organisations. I receive no financial benefit from these voluntary positions
(c)(i)    Directorships, and whether I intend to continue to hold them, if elected.	None
(c)(ii)   Clients, and whether I intend to continue to advise them, if elected.	None
(c)(iii) Land and property, and whether I intend to continue to hold this, if elected.	Apart from my homes in Rotherham and London, on which I have outstanding mortgages, I have no property or land interests.
(c)(iv) Shareholdings, and whether I intend to continue to hold these, if elected.	None
(d)        Tax matters	As an MP I am on PAYE and pay tax as a domiciled UK tax payer on any earnings as declared to the Register of Parliamentary Interests
(e)        Any other interests which I consider relevant.	None

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There’s a good mood out there!

Out this morning campaigning with Rose McNeely, Labour’s candidate in Boston Castle Ward and what a beautiful Sunday morning. Talking to voters and there was a very good mood! Spoke to just over 100 voters in quite a middle class area and 50% will be voting Labour. And for those still not sure how to vote – no mention of Tories or Lib Dems. Peter on Broom Rd, a lifelong Tory voter,  stopped me to say he’s be voting Labour for the first time – ‘Labour is the only party talking sensibly about immigration’.

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Labour’s election line up in Rotherham

Here with Local Election candidates

Rose McNeely – Boston Castle

Alan Buckley – Brinsworth and Catcliffe

Colin Barron – Keppel

Shaukat Ali – Rotherham East

Jahangir Akhtar – Rotherham West

Dave Pickering – Valley

Keith Goulty – Wingfield

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Standing up for creative workers rights

Speaking in the closing stages of the Digital Economy bill I said that journalists, musicians and creative workers should not have their work stolen from them to be handed out free on the internet. As a former president of the National Union of Journalist, I was critical of Lib-Dem and Labour MPs who were seeking to deny to creative workers a fair share of their added value by allowing free access to what they produce.

I share the concern that this bill was rushed through without full consideration and the issue will certainly have to be revisited after the election but the core principal that the labourer is worthy of his or her hire is now in law and I welcome that.

Since then there have been blog attacks on me including one blogger who accused me of “standing up for the great unwashed masses of broadsheet journalists”. I have defended journalists and media freedom all my life. I am saddened that there is so little understanding of the need to stop the theft of intellectual property rights. I support the widest access to the web but there needs to be some balance and both sides in this debate need to cool down the rhetoric and work on rules that can help everyone.

My intervention as recorded in Hansard

Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): I rise as a former president of the National Union of Journalists to humbly suggest to the Committee that the labourer is worthy of his hire. If someone puts his intellectual effort into writing an article, making some music or creating something, it should not be stolen from him and handed out free through the power of the internet.
As a parent, I have to say that it may not be the most unwelcome thing in the world for a father or mother to tell their child, “Actually, you can’t spend all evening on the internet.”

I understand why the Liberal Democrats-representing big capitalism-generally oppose the measure, but as a socialist I am astonished that some of my hon. Friends are telling my journalist colleagues and others that they do not have the right to protect that which they have created, and to have some modest share of the value they add to our economy, because that would represent problems for wi-fi providers, internet café owners or hotels.
That is not something I am happy with, and that is why, in the last, dying hours of a Labour Government, I am doing something that may be difficult for colleagues, which is to support a Labour Government. I do so not from Labour loyalty, but because I profoundly believe that the explosion of the net-of information provision-which I welcome, must not deny those who add value to it their chance to have some share of that which they produce.
Mr. Foster: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. MacShane: A Liberal Democrat asks me to give way. We are in the last dying hours of this Parliament. That party has always stood up for the rich and the privileged against the rights of journalists and trade unionists. I will not give way. If he wants to make another speech, he can do so.

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My letter published in ‘Guardian’ 29 March 2010

Can this statement be right? “Thirteen years of Labour government have improved the incomes of the poorest households while the richest have suffered large cuts” (Report, 26 March). But surely I have read, on average, a comment or a letter a day arguing that Labour is the friend of the rich and has done nothing for the poor. Now the Institute for Fiscal Studies has told the truth. While Peter Mandelson was throwing sand in the eyes of oligarch millionaires with his pro-wealth remarks, Labour was inching along a social democratic path of being a stealthy Robin Hood. Long may it continue. Unless voters put their cross against anti-Labour candidates.

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Last visit to Parliament before the election

Tarnia and Melville Kennedy from East Dene and Diana and Shane Kennedy from Eastwood were probably the last visitors from Rotherham to Parliament before next week’s expected announcement of a general election.

Once Parliament is dissolved me together with Rotherham’s two other MPs, Kevin Barron and John Healey, cease being MPs until after the election in which all three are standing as Labour candidates.

I am not allowed to hold my regular ‘MP constituency surgeries’ but will of course continue to deal with urgent cases and all parliamentary emails will be forwarded on to me. One of the privileges of being an MP is to welcome visitors from Rotherham. There are more than a hundred each year – either in groups, or as with the Kennedy’s, just people down on a trip to London who would like to see the inside of Parliament. If I have the privilege of being re-elected, I hope many more Rotherham constituents will contact me in order to visit the Commons, which belong to the voters of Britain.

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Here with Cllr Rose McNeely and Harry Bower out in the lovely Spring sunshine campaigning in Clifton.

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Rotherham Sport Relief Mile

Great day for it – lovely sunshine and a very comradely atmosphere!!

Rotherham’s Red Runners ran in ‘I love Rotherham’ t-shirts to give an extra bit of promotion to the South Yorkshire Community Foundation scheme.

And our team of Rose McNeely, Mahroof Hussain, Jahangir Akhtar and myself all completed the race. So far we’ve raised £2,875 for Sport Relief and there is still more coming in!

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