Prison Diaries by MacShane Denis;

Author:MacShane, Denis; [Denis MacShane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1768232
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

1030H Hooray, I have a legal visit. My first in seventeen days. It is not my solicitor who handled the case but another prominent solicitor with whom I have campaigned on big issues, especially to do with media freedom over the years. I talked to him all during the saga of the BNP complaint and the twists and turns of the CPS and parliamentary handing of it, so it is a legitimate Rule 39 visit.

He is giving me legal advice on a few things I plan to do once out. He says I made a big mistake in not fighting my case much more politically from day one. ‘The fact that you were never interviewed by the Parliamentary Investigator is such an obvious denial of natural justice, for a start. Then you had all the Tories on the committee gunning for you. The Conservatives are much better at looking after their own than Labour.’

I am tired of this old ground. I trusted the system and it had its own rules and reasons, which I failed to read. Small print often catches you out but unspoken small print is fatal.

He tells me that one Labour MP friend has had a word with the Prisons Minister, who said he would see what he could do provided it was all kept quiet. But Grayling’s regime means that, unlike other MP prisoners, I am now well into my third week in Belmarsh. I don’t even know who the Prisons Minister is. I don’t trust Christ Grayling and if the Prisons Minister is a Lib, trusting one of them doesn’t come naturally after all their broken promises and lies.

We keep our meeting going for ninety minutes just for my pleasure of seeing an old, dear friend and having again an intelligent, structured talk. He says Keir Starmer QC is said to want to succeed Frank Dobson as MP for Camden. Given Starmer’s terrible record as Director of Public Prosecutions, all smooth talk and no delivery on rape or violence against women, I suppose the House of Commons would be a natural next step. Luckily, I do not live in that part of London as I certainly could not vote Labour if a man like that is the candidate after my experience at the hands of the CPS when he was in charge.

I ask my lawyer friend if he could leave me his green felt-tip pen so I can write. But as I walk from the legal interview cubicle to go back to my cell I can hear a guard calling out, ‘MacShane’s got a pen, he’s got a pen, take it off him.’ I protest to the guard and the pen is clearly visible on top of my legal papers.

He takes it off me. ‘They’ll give you a pen in your houseblock.’ Another day, another prison officer lie.

In the waiting room I meet a man I have seen in the Catholic services. He has waited ninety minutes and neither solicitor nor barrister has turned up.

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