Today is the 55th birthday of the Right Honourable Lord Mandelson of Hartlepool and Foy in the County of Herefordshire. Following his remarks on post office privatisation, I hear that his local posties are declining to deliver his sacks of birthday cards.
So I am afraid, dear reader, it falls to you to step into the breach and send Mandy happy birthday messages in the comments. Over to you.
* Keep then decent, please!
45 comments:
Please get his name right
http://lordsoftheblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/its-lord-mandelson/
Well, he seems to be having many "happy returns" to the Cabinet...
Even as a spoof this is in very poor taste.
Alternatively, try posting them on 'Lords of the Blog' where his arrival has been greeted with joy and exaltation by the current noble Lords and Ladies...
I imagine one person not sending him a card will be George Osborne. It seems that since George leaked the story that Peter was at Nat Rothschild's, alongside the Russian
Oleg Deripaska, a letter has appeared in Today's Times from Mr Rothschild, and an accompanying article in the paper suggesting that "Russia’s richest man entertained George Osborne and David Cameron’s chief fundraiser on his yacht in Corfu, leading to discussion of a £50,000 donation to the Conservative Party."
According to Radio 4 this morning, whilst the Tory high command are denying this, Mr Rothschild and another witness are prepared to go to court to justify this claim. As Nick Robinson suggests, if it is proved in court that Mr Osborne was seeking or soliciting money from the Russian, then he will be forced to resign.
It is early days yet, and there will be allegation and counter allegation, but if Mr Rothschild (a Tory according to the Times) is serious, and if his letter is correct, then great damage will be done to the conservatives.
Iain, You got the title wrong and left out the comma..
Lord Norton will be round to give you your 'lines' later...
"Happy Birthday Lord Mandy - None of us are getting any younger.. So in that respect 'we are all billeted in the same boat' "
Happy Birthday Peter, from your friends Nat, George and Oleg.
From our yachts in Corfu
ps. David sends his love too! And asks you to thank Oleg for his kind and utterly unsolicited offer to George!
Happy Birthday I have a black and decker drill ready for you to help get the nasty Kidney Stone out.
What is extraordinary about the Mandlesohn Corfu trip is that he was then the EU Commissioner responsible for trade in aluminium, meeting a ruthless and utterly unprincipled Russian Oligarch who controls aluminium in that country. What on earth could they have been discussing? Perhaps we should be told.
Also, what the heck was George Osborne doing there if he wasn't just chasing donations??
Note that there is absolutely nothing on the BBC "news" website today on this story, although all the other media are covering it. Nothing, zip, nada.
Has a D-Notice been issued to the Director General at the request of M'Lud Mandlesohn?
Oh, Mandy
So handy
To deBrown the cause.
How Dandy, past randy
Bur can you skate over
Your Onus Probandi?
And prove
Your honetsy
Time and again?
Mandy of Foy
You’re a hobble-de-hoy
But you’ve got a cheap P
So third time unlucky, will mean sod all to thee!
Fortunately, no-one in their right mind would waste any time believing a word Nat Rothschild says about anything to do with money.
I hope George Osborne has learnt his lesson and will never again be tempted to socialise with rich morally bankrupt crooks.
Looks like yer 'ol pal George is in the poo Iain, comments!
Peter, you're a little shit. many happy returns.
I'm not really sure I see what all the fuss is about.
The fact that the EU exists to help multinational companies make a lot more money, and smooth the business path of wealthy oligarchs in a totally anti-democratic way isn't news to anyone who has followed the path of this federal hydra-headed monster.
The fact that 'Peter's slip is showing' is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Oh dear. Hedge funds. The Bullingdon Club. Peter Mandlesohn. Oleg Thingalov or whatever he's called. Secret bungs. Tory and Labour politicians hobnobbing on yachts about metal prices. It's all too much. Can we return to the days when Britain was run by reliable old Etonian chaps please like that nice Mr Macmillian? Er. Gosh. Oh dear. Blimey.
Daniel 9.38 (or is it Derek?
Re the Times coverage:
The front page story, suggesting Osborne was looking for a donation, was written by Philip Webster, outed as Alistair Campbell's stooge in the great man's diaries.
Inside, you get a different story, with more evidence of Mandleson lying about his relationship with the Russian Deripaska.
Rothschild seems to have sided with Mandleson, because he is making a lot of money from the Russian and doesn't want Osborne upsetting the applecart.
Mandy, baby,
I'm in misery (Missouri?)
I gave you my heart
And you tore me apart
Oh Mandy.
I hope this isn't true -- everyone should get birthday cards, even Labour politicians.
Happy Birthday Peter!
Happy Birthday M'Lud. Would you mind awfully not using our village name though? It's had rather a poor effect on house prices.
Hoy, Hertfordshire (Or maybe Durham? Ed.)
Have a great birthday, Osmold Smirsh!
on a non related topic, how are your gym visits going Iain? or have you stopped going?
Some accurate comments here about the role of the EU in supporting private super-wealthy and their corporate fronts.
I wonder what the role of Murdoch was in all this, he was also there and controls the Times.
Mandlesohn, like many senior government apparatchiks these days, understands his role as being essentially to "oil the wheels" by which very rich people and their hedge fund managers can take possession of ever-larger pieces of us.
In the US, living standards in real terms are now lower than they were in 1971 for the bottom half of households. For the wealthiest 5%, they are 140 times higher.
This is the true result of the grand vision of the monetarists, and is ably supported by neocons and neoliberals like Mandlesohn, Brown, Cameron, etc, who act as the stooges and front-men for the likes of Russian oligarchs.
Which of his kind friends bought him a peerage for his birthday?
The EU was a fairly honourable project until Margaret Thatcher installed Leon Brittan as Trade Minister. He proceeded to negotiate away our shipbuilding, fishing, steelmaking, coal mining, car making and all other industry. Mandy just took over where Brittan left off.
Am I correct in my perception of a rather informal narrative style and lack of dates in
Rothchild's letter making allegations against George Osborne?
Is it not likely that a lawyer would have been asked to check and redraft such a letter?
Would a lawyer have used this informal narrative style and have failed to add verified date/s to such a letter?
The Conservative Party's response does give a date:
“The allegations made in Mr Rothschild’s letter are completely untrue. Both Andrew Feldman and George Osborne deny absolutely that they attempted to solicit a donation from Oleg Deripaska. Nor did they suggest a method by which he could conceal a donation via a British company. They spent a short period of time on Mr Deripaska’s boat at the invitation of Mr Rothschild. Donations to the Conservative Party were not discussed with Mr Deripaska. In a conversation on September 18, Mr Rothschild suggested to Andrew Feldman that Mr Deripaska wanted to make a donation to the party through one of his British companies. The offer was not taken up. For clarity - the Conservative Party has neither sought or received any donations from Mr Deripaska nor any of his companies.
The Conservative Party”
Come on Iain.
The Times makes a splash of serious allegations against the Shadow Chancellor and the Conservative Party.
The BBC has two of it's senior reporters cover the story on radio and in their blogs - Peston going so far as to say there is at least one witness prepared to testify that the allegations are true.
But no comment from you.
I know this is an avowedly partisan blog, but it is diminishing not to have something to say - even if this isresponding to a Mandelson/Campbell/Blair manoeuvre.
I can only hope that the delay is due to you taking care to make enquiries of your own.
Weygand, you see that's the thing about blogging. I dont feel the need to give a running commentary on every news story that exists, especially if I cant think of anything I can add that would add to the sum of human knowledge. You will also note that I did not comment on Mandelson meeting this Russian man either.
Am I right in thinking that part of the allegation is that Mandelson stayed on the oligarch's yacht, because there was no room in any of Rothchild's 5 houses, whereas Osborne and his wife attended a party they were invited to there for a few hours?
I wonder why Mandelson didn't mention this allegation about Osborne in the Raworth interview?
Well it's your blog, after all.
But, as you know, there will be all sorts of cheap shots from the Mandelson fraternity, who will be less inclined than I am to accept such a reflective attitude.
weygand 11.52
The BBC is no longer a credible source of information. And all the people peddling the story are notorious proven liars.
I only hope that while Gordon's been out with his begging bowl scrounging money from all and sundry using British "assets" as collateral he hasn't been fool enough to borrow from any of the crooks involved in this sorry tale.
I wonder what the Russian's offering for a British passport.
Isn't it strange that whilst politics is a dirty business, with the return of Mandleson, it has become filthy again.
Who will rid us of this stain on our National Morality.
Just to add that sources close to Deripaska have told Nick Robinson that he didn't start the conversation about donating money. To the contrary, it seems that Osborne invited Feldman to join in a cosy meeting on the yacht.
They must have been discussing fishing or something.
Should it be 'happy groundhog day'?
Today, another scandal involving Lord guacamole brews. And if Osbourne really cares about his friend who gave him a job out of friendship as he's unqualified for it, he should graciously step down and let's have someone like David Davis, William Hague or Chris Grayling in that role.
Methinks guacamole's birthday is tomorrow though - ask Wikipedia and Guardian newspaper archives.
Back two minutes and this vile corrupt left-wing extremist is working his magic already.
Which will be exactly why the Jock brought him back.
When the Robinson loan scandal broke, Mandy and Reinaldo were under siege in the Notting Hill residence purchased with it. A pizza delivery man screeched up and after being beaten near senseless by the hacks tearfully confessed that the order he was delivering to the occupants was a "Mermaid Queen".
I do not care how many times I have to repeat this anecdote. These details are important. It was a Mermaid Queen. Got it?
The main mystery is why £50k was worth discussing in this context.
Happy Birthday Mandy from your partner in crime
George Osbourne
Catamite
Happy birthday dear 2.4 million homeowner Mandy (God knows how you wangled out that kind of dosh to buy your stately home!)!
Osborne story has all the makings of your tricks, now that you have become the buddy of Gordo. At least once in your lifetime could we expect something clean and healthy and adversarial and not whispers and innuendos. By the way, just what did you say to young Rothschild?
Peter Mandelson wants to privatise the Post Office. Well, of course he does.
An EU directive requires full competition in postal services by 2012, so that the Royal Mail must deliver its competitors' letters as if they were its own First Class ones, yet for less than the price of First Class post. This necessitates cuts, both in postmen's pay and in Post Offices. The pay cuts have already led to strikes, of which there will be more. So, is anyone still saying that the EU is Socialist?
Meanwhile, that the "free" marketeers would seriously propose privatising something nationalised (to use the word anachronistically, I admit) by Charles II in 1660, and representing the most significant direct link between the monarchy and every household, business, organisation and institution in the land, indicates just how utterly unconservative the "free" market ideology really is.
Just as we need someone for the Commonwealth to balance the one for the EU and the US, and just as we need someone for "The Regions" (for want of a better term - and I mean "The Regions" of England, Scotland and Wales alike) to balance the ones for the Golden Triangle (London and the South East, the Central Belt of Scotland, and South Wales), so we need someone for Workers, Consumers and the Communities, to balance the one for Business.
No chance of that from any of the three New Labour parties, though.
Let us get some facts.
Mandelson goes to Brussels and has now a large house !
Windbag Kinnock went to Brussels, his wife followed on the gravy train, his son followed his parents and presented them with a Danish daughter-in law, who would some day become a PM of Denmark The Windbag leaves Brussels goes to British Council and his son becomes a British Council chief, was in Russia last time?
The Tories are not in power. Osborne would not even have the power to influece the Corfu Hotel Chef's Special! No money, no sleaze. Unlike Eccleston , Blair and Tessa.
I'm stunned Dame Mandy has a birthday... thought (s)he just simply morphed out of slime and sleaze...
Normally a most clubbable fellow, I cannot bring myself to wish you, 'Lord' Mandelson, any happiness at all, even on your birthday.
You disgust me.
Politics on your side of the House was already at a pretty low ebb, but since your return its standards have nosedived. The cloud does contain a silver lining, though - the electorate's view of your Party is further diminished by your reintroduction, for which it will be avenged at the polls.
Roll on Glenrothes!
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