political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Friday, October 03, 2008
Plus ca Change, Plus c'est la Meme Chose
You couldn't make it up really, could you? New Labour has a rather old face to it this lunchtime. Just when you thought it was safe, they're all back.
It's extraordinary. How can anyone be reappointed to the cabinet after getting sacked for corruption twice?
Mind you it could mean that Brown has forgiven Mandelson, because he now realises that Mandy was right to conclude that Blair was a better leader than Broon.
Clever move by Brown in bringing Mandy back to these shores. Given the high debt levels Brown has incurred for the country (both direct and via PPP) Mandy is well placed to advise on these matters given his deep understanding on the perils of debt.
How to become a peer of the realm - resign from the Cabinet twice in disgrace, get a leg up into an organisation that is completely fraudulent (the auditors refuse to sign off the acounts), return to a disgraced government crippled by interrnal party politics and bingo! - there you go!
Why do my thoughts turn to Samson in the Temple? This really is myopic, detached-from-reality Broon aiming a defiant brace of digits rampant at the Labour Party and the country. As his government heads titanically towards the iceberg, he promotes the previous organ-grinder's monkey onto the bridge.
Has anyone in recent politics managed to confect quite such a disagreeable, arrogant, humourless, sanctimonious profile as Peter Mandelson. I, for one, will find it as impossible to refer to 'Lord' Mandy as 'Baroness' Thatcher.
I have no doubt that Paddy Power and others will be opening a book on how long it takes Mandelson to get [or be menaoeuvred!] into a third scrape and be forced to resign yet again.
i honestly believe Brown has no idea what he is doing. How can you be so behind in the polls and think that bringing back Campbell and Mandelson will impress anyone??? Give Alan Sugar the job as minister for trade, that will get some good headlines and probably the same disastrous end result. But to give Mandy a seat in the Lords and a 6 figure salary from the taxpayer...
UNITY SAID ( On Libdum Conspiracy ) I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Campbell pop up in a consultancy role to go with the return of both Mandelson and Draper, as its apparent that Brown’s reassembling the team that beat the living crap out of Major in 1997 in order to counter Coulson’s Tory spin operation. The next election was always going to be a brutal one, but now it looks likely to turn in a bloodbath.
Newmania Brown is already spending more on propaganda than Blair did but Mandy has negative credibility .He is a corrupt clown Brown must have come up with 20% behind in desperation . I said some time ago that was a chat between New Labour and One Nation Tory is going to turn into a fight to save the country from the destruction fourth term of union backed leftish spend tax and control freak Brown Well maybe its about time we cleaned out the closet .
Brown amkes all this noise about turning a new page and being a new man with new ideas. He sepnds the last year distancing himself from New Labour (which the media have fallen for, seeing as he is New Labour) and then....
He literally re-appoints New Labour!
The message surely has to be that if you vote for Gordon, you are getting all the old tat.
And I agree witht the above, sacked twice for corruption and allowed back in. A disgrace.
The assumption was that Mandy "had something on" Blair, which ensured his magical resurrection and then his thoroughly undeserved translation to the EU gravy-train. Can he have something on Jonah?
Does Brown realise what a gift he's just given the media and opposition parties ?
Mandelson who 75% of the Labour Party detest; who the public distrust and whom the media have a vendetta against togther with Campbell who is linked in the public's eyes with the "dodgy dossier" which led this country into the Iraq War on a false premise and for contributing to the death of Dr David Kelly truly Brown has taken final leave of his senses.
on the world at one today, robert harris suggested that 'lord' m. would be an asset to the cabinet because of his great experience in the fields of industry and, persumably,commerce, and as justification cited the time 'lord' m. spent as a minister in the blair government and as an e.u. commisioner.
can anyone expand on this glowing reference, particularly regarding any past relevent experience,that would add further lustre to 'lord 'm.'s c.v. ?
Shouldn't Derek Draper be sorting out that dopey wife of his? You know the one that can't dance...or er talk and walk at the same time..or er think.. or er... do anything really.
What an utter sohw of s**t this lot are. Draper, Mandy Campbell.
The three stooges.
If Broon thinks this lot will win him the lection, he's clearly lost the plot.
"If Broon thinks this lot will win him the lection, he's clearly lost the plot."
Brown clearly also thinks that NuLab can lie, spin and smear its way to victory at the next election. But the British people aren't fooled anymore and previous history will ensure that Mandelson, Campbell et al are all very "touchable" this time around.
For example, everytime Campbell opens his mouth the Tories should remind us who led the witch-hunt that resulted in the death of David Kelly....
This is such a gift to the Opposition. Same old Labour, same old lies. Labour - Living in the Past.
And such a quixotic gesture of defiance and contempt of the electorate. Wasn't Brown supposed to have been a new broom, sweeping away the lies and spin of the Blair years? And what does he do but bring back the original Mephistopheles, the Prince of Darkness. Truly he's living in a private Fuehrerbunker, oblivious to electoral reality.
Do we have any information on the mood at CCHQ? Any truckloads of Bollinger being delivered?
Gordon Brown has just irrevocably trashed his own brand. Gone are the heady days of June 2007 when he promised an end to spin and saw off the detested spin doctors. Now they are all back – Alistair Campbell – Peter Mandelson. Brown was supposed to restore trust in government and now he’s blown it. Many in the electorate will no doubt be thinking "there is nothing that you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe".
I was amazed to hear Fraser Nelson say on WATO that the Conservatives would be worried by this move. Has there ever been such a huge political gift ever? The public may not have much recognition of politicians but they all know and loathe Mandy. He represents everything that the public hated about the Blair regime. And now he's back. The BBC is already working hard to reinvent his image - but it's too late - the damage is done. Mandy can't be rehabilitated. That is a spin operation too far.
Mandelson was a good secretary of state at DTI and business leaders have welcomed his appointment to BERR. He brings additional experience as EU Trade commissioner. The Prime Minister is bringing him to work alongside other members of the Cabinet with genuine experience in economic and business affairs - Hutton, will remain in the Cabinet, which is very welcome, and Darling is increasingly turning out to be a sure footed and steadying voice at a time when others, including Osborne and Cameron are seen to be weak and rather hysterical.
The new focus of the Government is very much on economics and business - as it should be - and this is what we, the taxpayer, expect at this time of financial crisis.
I know people who read this blog will foam at the mouth about Mandelson - but a more considered and reasoned approach is needed at a this difficult time. If Mandelson can use his considerable experience to help us steer a course out of this mess - then that is good for the country and people should put their partisan feelings to one side.
Campbell is a ghastly little man. Mandy is just downright duplicitous and Draper is so utterly insignificant I cannot think of anyhing to say about him. Campbell hates Mandy, Mandy hates Gordy, Gordy hates them both. It's pathetic. Is this the future? Frankly, it is an affront to the common sense of the electorate. The Tories have absolutely nothing to be bothered about.
Daniel, 2.32: Hello, Dolly! 'Fraid you'll have to be a lot more subtle than that in concealing the pro-Labour propaganda. Two out of 10, bronze star for effort, back to the drawing board.
Rapid Big Butt... try and see beyond your own partisan feelings -Cameron said that we have to work together - this is a time of unprecedented global financial crisis. If Mandelson can play a part in working to help us sort that, surely we all benefit?
Lovely to see you boys up in arms. Not sure about Mandy - the red tops and pseud tabs alike will be out to get him - but see no problem with the others. Not one little bit. And Mandy I can manage too. In the interests of the country.
Labour seem to have made a wrong turn here. ALI C was forced out after the scientist was found dead and the public uproar.
Mandelson is a strange appointment, why does Brown need Financial Expertease. Does his 10 years in the Exchequer count for nothing? Though being a Financial player on the world stage (Even if he is ignored by everyone else)was Brown's USP? Doesn't say much for Brown - He has picked the incorrect solution for this question. Brown needed political ballist not Financial.
I bet the champagne corks are popping in CCHQ over the astounding way Brown does a re-run of Vince's Stalin to Mr Bean joke by these appointments - what an own goal on matters of probity!!!
That cover of Total Politics with the knife will be how most Labour MPs and quite a few Cabinet Ministers are feeling now.
It would seem that Brown has made a pig's ear of his reshuffle and Mandelson even screwed up the presentation by leaking it before the PM even came back from a prior appointment.
Some Labour MP's will rightly conclude that the game is up and it it time to defect!
Caroline Flint looks to have been sacked! oh well, I am sure she can use her talents elsewhere!
This is absolutely fantastic!, just when you thought Broon McBean was merely re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic he then introduces more Icebergs!.
Watching Mandy in Downing Street, clad in jacket and red woolly pully, grinning wolfishly as he walked into No 10 was such a strange time warp feeling.
I fully expect to see, next time I log into this blog, that all Iain's dark hair has miraculously come back.
The ghastly Blair years are being restored, it seems. After Mandelson, such other eye-wateringly undistinguished figures such as Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell, Carole Caplin, Michael Levy, even Blair himself...
Say it ain't so, Gordon.
I see that the Department to be headed by Mandy still has its ultra-capitalist name, and presumably also brief, even now. Bring back the DTI.
And we should all apply, not only for Metropolitan Police Commissioner, but now also for EU Trade Commissioner, when those jobs are advertised. Or have I missed something?
When I heard this on the radio I assumed that it was a joke. please somebody tell me it was.
I cannot work out why he has done this. Is he showing his comptempt for business by appointing a twice disgraced Blairite that everybody hates. I know he has lack of talent to draw on but is this really the best he can do. I will give him six months before he is caught out again.
I don't understand what all you chaps and chapesses are carping about. Mandelson is obviously just want the country needs. This is a man who really understands cheap mortgages - just ask Geoffrey Robinson.
The undercurrent of homophobia that runs through the Tory Party (and which people Iain and Alan Duncan somehow manage to tolerate) has become a torrent with this news, especially on Guido. I find it quite shocking but then maybe I'm just very naive to expect anything better.
"Prime minister, we have noticed that your proclaimed goats -Government of all (the) talents, has been transformed into - Blairs lowly old wannabe's, junking our British spirit - work the accronym out for yourself "
As a new boy on this site I'm delighted to discover it's where Bird and Fortune publish their draft scripts for the George Parr interviews. See: daniel @2.32. (Nobody allowed to roam free in the community could possibly write that...could they?)
As for the supposed homphobia of Guido's correspondents, I don't get the impression that they hate homosexuals half (or one-tenth) as much as they (rightly) hate Mandy. Hating Mandy ain't unrespectable; it ought to be mandatory.
The homophobia comments are mostly rubbish and a weak attempt to close down attacks on Mandelson.
Mandelson's lifestyle, like his choice of partner is rather exotic....his choice, but if he had been heterosexual and was squiring a racy younger Brazilian lady, tongues would wag in a similar manner. Others gay MPs, such as Chris Smith, didn't have their relationships discussed in such a way.
Likewise, Lebmit Opik has the piss (properly) taken out of him because of his penchant for celebrity living and racy girlfriends.
I don't the public are in the mood for retro politics.
ReplyDeleteDo you?
I don't THINK the public are in the mood for retro politics...
ReplyDeleteDo you?
(Get an edit button) :)
Alistair Campbell.....the new Minister for Truth.
ReplyDeleteI just do not think this is going to work.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of firms that are struggling - they look back on the glory days and how things used to be rather than looking forward.
It is outrageous that more tax payers money should be used to fund these parasites.
ReplyDeleteThere will have been some terrible prices paid in all of this....
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/3m2ba9
It's extraordinary. How can anyone be reappointed to the cabinet after getting sacked for corruption twice?
ReplyDeleteMind you it could mean that Brown has forgiven Mandelson, because he now realises that Mandy was right to conclude that Blair was a better leader than Broon.
Clever move by Brown in bringing Mandy back to these shores. Given the high debt levels Brown has incurred for the country (both direct and via PPP) Mandy is well placed to advise on these matters given his deep understanding on the perils of debt.
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha...
ReplyDeleteHow to become a peer of the realm - resign from the Cabinet twice in disgrace, get a leg up into an organisation that is completely fraudulent (the auditors refuse to sign off the acounts), return to a disgraced government crippled by interrnal party politics and bingo! - there you go!
Back to the days when they used to wipe the floor with the Tories. Terrible move by Brown.
ReplyDeleteMandy should make sure his Brazilian boyfriend should travel in the ministerial Mondeo. Travelling on the Tube is not a good idea for him
ReplyDeleteWhy do my thoughts turn to Samson in the Temple? This really is myopic, detached-from-reality Broon aiming a defiant brace of digits rampant at the Labour Party and the country. As his government heads titanically towards the iceberg, he promotes the previous organ-grinder's monkey onto the bridge.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone in recent politics managed to confect quite such a disagreeable, arrogant, humourless, sanctimonious profile as Peter Mandelson. I, for one, will find it as impossible to refer to 'Lord' Mandy as 'Baroness' Thatcher.
I have no doubt that Paddy Power and others will be opening a book on how long it takes Mandelson to get [or be menaoeuvred!] into a third scrape and be forced to resign yet again.
i honestly believe Brown has no idea what he is doing. How can you be so behind in the polls and think that bringing back Campbell and Mandelson will impress anyone??? Give Alan Sugar the job as minister for trade, that will get some good headlines and probably the same disastrous end result. But to give Mandy a seat in the Lords and a 6 figure salary from the taxpayer...
ReplyDelete"menaoeuvred", for Gawd's sake? How TF did that happen? Ashamed am I!
ReplyDeleteUNITY SAID ( On Libdum Conspiracy )
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Campbell pop up in a consultancy role to go with the return of both Mandelson and Draper, as its apparent that Brown’s reassembling the team that beat the living crap out of Major in 1997 in order to counter Coulson’s Tory spin operation.
The next election was always going to be a brutal one, but now it looks likely to turn in a bloodbath.
Newmania
Brown is already spending more on propaganda than Blair did but Mandy has negative credibility .He is a corrupt clown Brown must have come up with 20% behind in desperation .
I said some time ago that was a chat between New Labour and One Nation Tory is going to turn into a fight to save the country from the destruction fourth term of union backed leftish spend tax and control freak Brown
Well maybe its about time we cleaned out the closet .
I'm in shock to be honest.
ReplyDeleteBrown amkes all this noise about turning a new page and being a new man with new ideas. He sepnds the last year distancing himself from New Labour (which the media have fallen for, seeing as he is New Labour) and then....
He literally re-appoints New Labour!
The message surely has to be that if you vote for Gordon, you are getting all the old tat.
And I agree witht the above, sacked twice for corruption and allowed back in. A disgrace.
The assumption was that Mandy "had something on" Blair, which ensured his magical resurrection and then his thoroughly undeserved translation to the EU gravy-train. Can he have something on Jonah?
ReplyDeleteDoes Brown realise what a gift he's just given the media and opposition parties ?
ReplyDeleteMandelson who 75% of the Labour Party detest; who the public distrust and whom the media have a vendetta against togther with Campbell who is linked in the public's eyes with the "dodgy dossier" which led this country into the Iraq War on a false premise and for contributing to the death of Dr David Kelly truly Brown has taken final leave of his senses.
Cadbury's has re-launched Wispa
ReplyDeleteChannel 5 are bring back 'Going for Gold'
I wonder whether Brown's reto cabinet will be a 'Take That' success, or bomb like the 'Spice Girls' re-union
Peter Mandelson, a peer of the realm.
ReplyDeleteDear God!
He can shuffle in next to Kinnock and Prescott.
What really happened to Dr David Kelly? I mean - as in the truth.
ReplyDeleteWith only 18 months to go before an election at least Baroness Mandelson of Rio might hold onto his job with resigning before he is booted out.
ReplyDeleteHow long after his boyfriend got a visa did they actually split up?
Gordon shows his contempt for everyone. An absolute disgrace.
ReplyDeletePlease ma'am can we have a general election or can you ask the army to come in and sort out this apology for a government.
Gordon Brown is truly insane.
Mandy is the gift that keeps on giving.Cameron must think Christmas has come early this year.
ReplyDeleteA Government of all the felons?
ReplyDeletecanvas said...
ReplyDelete"(Get an edit button) :)"
Or, before you press the Publish button, you could try actually reading what you have typed.
I'm Mandy rehabilitate me.
ReplyDeleteon the world at one today, robert harris suggested that 'lord' m. would be an asset to the cabinet because of his great experience in the fields of industry and, persumably,commerce, and as justification cited the time 'lord' m. spent as a minister in the blair government and as an e.u. commisioner.
ReplyDeletecan anyone expand on this glowing reference, particularly regarding any past relevent experience,that would add further lustre to 'lord 'm.'s c.v. ?
Shouldn't Derek Draper be sorting out that dopey wife of his? You know the one that can't dance...or er talk and walk at the same time..or er think.. or er... do anything really.
ReplyDeleteWhat an utter sohw of s**t this lot are. Draper, Mandy Campbell.
The three stooges.
If Broon thinks this lot will win him the lection, he's clearly lost the plot.
It's clear that this is not Brown's work. He was made an "offer" he couldn't refuse.
ReplyDelete"If Broon thinks this lot will win him the lection, he's clearly lost the plot."
ReplyDeleteBrown clearly also thinks that NuLab can lie, spin and smear its way to victory at the next election. But the British people aren't fooled anymore and previous history will ensure that Mandelson, Campbell et al are all very "touchable" this time around.
For example, everytime Campbell opens his mouth the Tories should remind us who led the witch-hunt that resulted in the death of David Kelly....
cant you write french characters iain?
ReplyDeleteMandelson back again? Europe's gain is Britain's loss.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a gift to the Opposition. Same old Labour, same old lies. Labour - Living in the Past.
ReplyDeleteAnd such a quixotic gesture of defiance and contempt of the electorate. Wasn't Brown supposed to have been a new broom, sweeping away the lies and spin of the Blair years? And what does he do but bring back the original Mephistopheles, the Prince of Darkness. Truly he's living in a private Fuehrerbunker, oblivious to electoral reality.
Do we have any information on the mood at CCHQ? Any truckloads of Bollinger being delivered?
Ah, the Ministry of All the Talons!
ReplyDeleteanon at 1:27 says "Or, before you press the Publish button, you could try actually reading what you have typed."
ReplyDeleteAre you nuts? I'm working! :)
Gordon Brown has just irrevocably trashed his own brand. Gone are the heady days of June 2007 when he promised an end to spin and saw off the detested spin doctors. Now they are all back – Alistair Campbell – Peter Mandelson. Brown was supposed to restore trust in government and now he’s blown it. Many in the electorate will no doubt be thinking "there is nothing that you could ever say to me now that I could ever believe".
ReplyDeleteWilliam Hill are already offering 10/1 that Lord Machiavelli of Notting Hill will leave his new job before the next GE. Tempting.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, as Snottie McBean own goals go, this one is world-class.
I was amazed to hear Fraser Nelson say on WATO that the Conservatives would be worried by this move. Has there ever been such a huge political gift ever? The public may not have much recognition of politicians but they all know and loathe Mandy. He represents everything that the public hated about the Blair regime. And now he's back. The BBC is already working hard to reinvent his image - but it's too late - the damage is done. Mandy can't be rehabilitated. That is a spin operation too far.
ReplyDeleteThis means war.
ReplyDeleteMandelson was a good secretary of state at DTI and business leaders have welcomed his appointment to BERR. He brings additional experience as EU Trade commissioner. The Prime Minister is bringing him to work alongside other members of the Cabinet with genuine experience in economic and business affairs - Hutton, will remain in the Cabinet, which is very welcome, and Darling is increasingly turning out to be a sure footed and steadying voice at a time when others, including Osborne and Cameron are seen to be weak and rather hysterical.
ReplyDeleteThe new focus of the Government is very much on economics and business - as it should be - and this is what we, the taxpayer, expect at this time of financial crisis.
I know people who read this blog will foam at the mouth about Mandelson - but a more considered and reasoned approach is needed at a this difficult time. If Mandelson can use his considerable experience to help us steer a course out of this mess - then that is good for the country and people should put their partisan feelings to one side.
Campbell is a ghastly little man. Mandy is just downright duplicitous and Draper is so utterly insignificant I cannot think of anyhing to say about him. Campbell hates Mandy, Mandy hates Gordy, Gordy hates them both. It's pathetic. Is this the future? Frankly, it is an affront to the common sense of the electorate. The Tories have absolutely nothing to be bothered about.
ReplyDeleteCanvas, 12.45, asks precisely the right, the urgent, question. If this lot are back, we need to know:
ReplyDelete"What really happened to Dr David Kelly?"
danielsaid @2.32 - is this post for real?
ReplyDelete"Its The Economy Stupid"
ReplyDeleteHang on, how does Mandy get into the Cabinet without being an MP? Is someone going to be bumped off in a safe (ha ha) seat) so he can do a Hartlepool?
ReplyDeleteAnd when does his stint in Brussels formally end? Are commissioners allowed to pop off whenever they like?
Daniel, 2.32: Hello, Dolly! 'Fraid you'll have to be a lot more subtle than that in concealing the pro-Labour propaganda. Two out of 10, bronze star for effort, back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteJudith: he'll be given a peerage as Lord Machiavelli of Notting Hill.
ReplyDeleteRapid Big Butt... try and see beyond your own partisan feelings -Cameron said that we have to work together - this is a time of unprecedented global financial crisis. If Mandelson can play a part in working to help us sort that, surely we all benefit?
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you boys up in arms. Not sure about Mandy - the red tops and pseud tabs alike will be out to get him - but see no problem with the others. Not one little bit. And Mandy I can manage too. In the interests of the country.
ReplyDeletedaniel,
ReplyDeletewhat has mandy done to help sort anything?
sowing disorder. yes
screwing up trade talks. yes
blaming others. yes
getting rich. yes
getting caught. yes
What makes you think he will help more than hinder?
Labour seem to have made a wrong turn here. ALI C was forced out after the scientist was found dead and the public uproar.
ReplyDeleteMandelson is a strange appointment, why does Brown need Financial Expertease. Does his 10 years in the Exchequer count for nothing? Though being a Financial player on the world stage (Even if he is ignored by everyone else)was Brown's USP? Doesn't say much for Brown - He has picked the incorrect solution for this question. Brown needed political ballist not Financial.
OOps Brown did it again!
I bet the champagne corks are popping in CCHQ over the astounding way Brown does a re-run of Vince's Stalin to Mr Bean joke by these appointments - what an own goal on matters of probity!!!
ReplyDeleteThat cover of Total Politics with the knife will be how most Labour MPs and quite a few Cabinet Ministers are feeling now.
A priceless move.
Labour are doomed - DOOMED!
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that Brown has made a pig's ear of his reshuffle and Mandelson even screwed up the presentation by leaking it before the PM even came back from a prior appointment.
Some Labour MP's will rightly conclude that the game is up and it it time to defect!
Caroline Flint looks to have been sacked! oh well, I am sure she can use her talents elsewhere!
Captain Brown brings in a new string(up) quartet to play brighter tunes as the Titanic sinks.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely fantastic!, just when you thought Broon McBean was merely re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic he then introduces more Icebergs!.
ReplyDeleteOh Hilarity.
There should be a limit to what a Prime Minister is allowed to do to save his own skin.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown has now compromised himself for good.
So Mandelson will be getting a handsome EU pension (and other payments no doubt) plus a cabinet salary, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteFar from mandy being "our man in the EU", in actuality he is "The EU's man in England" Sorry, its called the "Regions" now.
ReplyDeleteMind you, Broon is the EU's man in England.
Mandy's return will reduce the average IQs of both Brussels and Westminster
ReplyDeleteIain, have you read the kind of awful homophobic comments being posted on Guido's blog? It is UNBELIEVABLE:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8212152&postID=4051355010428930526&isPopup=true
Watching Mandy in Downing Street, clad in jacket and red woolly pully, grinning wolfishly as he walked into No 10 was such a strange time warp feeling.
ReplyDeleteI fully expect to see, next time I log into this blog, that all Iain's dark hair has miraculously come back.
Weird...
Gordon Brown's first horror production - a sequel:
ReplyDeleteReturn Of The Living Dead - The Satanic Trinity (plus one)
Anon @ 2:34 PM
ReplyDeleteWhat evidence do you have that Campbell hates Mandy? I thought he said in his diary that he liked him.
Lord Mandelson of Rue De Matelots.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of tossers. Surely the new Department of 'Bungled Caramel Packing' (see Wikipedia) is more than slightly overpopulated already.
The ghastly Blair years are being restored, it seems. After Mandelson, such other eye-wateringly undistinguished figures such as Alastair Campbell, Jonathan Powell, Carole Caplin, Michael Levy, even Blair himself...
ReplyDeleteSay it ain't so, Gordon.
I see that the Department to be headed by Mandy still has its ultra-capitalist name, and presumably also brief, even now. Bring back the DTI.
And we should all apply, not only for Metropolitan Police Commissioner, but now also for EU Trade Commissioner, when those jobs are advertised. Or have I missed something?
When I heard this on the radio I assumed that it was a joke. please somebody tell me it was.
ReplyDeleteI cannot work out why he has done this. Is he showing his comptempt for business by appointing a twice disgraced Blairite that everybody hates. I know he has lack of talent to draw on but is this really the best he can do. I will give him six months before he is caught out again.
The BBC reported with a thoroughly straight face that "Mandelson had unrivalled experience in global trade"
ReplyDeleteWhich sent a gay acquaintance into paroxysms of laughter. Yes, he had to explain it to me.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI now know what Brown's vision is,
ReplyDeleteto be last Prime Minister of the Labour Party
I don't understand what all you chaps and chapesses are carping about. Mandelson is obviously just want the country needs. This is a man who really understands cheap mortgages - just ask Geoffrey Robinson.
ReplyDeleteThe undercurrent of homophobia that runs through the Tory Party (and which people Iain and Alan Duncan somehow manage to tolerate) has become a torrent with this news, especially on Guido. I find it quite shocking but then maybe I'm just very naive to expect anything better.
ReplyDelete"Prime minister, we have noticed that your proclaimed goats -Government of all (the) talents, has been transformed into - Blairs lowly old wannabe's, junking our British spirit - work the accronym out for yourself "
ReplyDeleteAs a new boy on this site I'm delighted to discover it's where Bird and Fortune publish their draft scripts for the George Parr interviews. See: daniel @2.32. (Nobody allowed to roam free in the community could possibly write that...could they?)
ReplyDeleteAs for the supposed homphobia of Guido's correspondents, I don't get the impression that they hate homosexuals half (or one-tenth) as much as they (rightly) hate Mandy. Hating Mandy ain't unrespectable; it ought to be mandatory.
ReplyDeletejudith said...
ReplyDelete"Hang on, how does Mandy get into the Cabinet without being an MP?"
A person doesn't have to be an MP to be in the cabinet, e.g. Frank Cousins in 1964, Lord Carrington in 1979, Lord Young in 1984.
You can actually smell the fear
ReplyDeleteBottom right is surely Charge Nurse Charlie Fairhead out of Casualty?
ReplyDeleteDrooper looks like an alky.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Alistair Campbell's comment last time Mandy resigned:
ReplyDelete"Peter seems to have become strangely re-attached"
The homophobia comments are mostly rubbish and a weak attempt to close down attacks on Mandelson.
ReplyDeleteMandelson's lifestyle, like his choice of partner is rather exotic....his choice, but if he had been heterosexual and was squiring a racy younger Brazilian lady, tongues would wag in a similar manner. Others gay MPs, such as Chris Smith, didn't have their relationships discussed in such a way.
Likewise, Lebmit Opik has the piss (properly) taken out of him because of his penchant for celebrity living and racy girlfriends.