Calculated to outrage

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Calculated to outrage

(Friday 03 October 2008)

IT is difficult to imagine a Cabinet appointment more calculated to dismay or outrage Labour supporters than that of Peter Mandelson.


The mere fact that serial embarrassment David Blunkett describes it as a "masterstroke" says all that's necessary of this third time unlucky triumph of hope over experience.

Mr Blunkett's bases his assessment of the rehabilitation of the architect of spin and rumour on the joyous reality that "it is embracing someone who, in the past, had been seen as being very close to Tony Blair, so it's an inclusive measure."

Well, three cheers for that. The tiny, unrepresentative and increasingly loathed group that is new Labour is papering over the cracks in its unity.

At the same time, trade unionists, pensioners, peace campaigners, the homeless, low-paid workers and people facing unpayable energy bills will conclude that new Labour has even less to offer them.

Those denied the chance of buying a home or facing negative equity and repossession will remember Mr Mandelson's own alternative mortgage arrangements - his secret large loan, interest free, from a Cabinet colleague.

That should have been that for his political career, but the patronage of Tony Blair meant his speedy return to Cabinet and, after another embarrassment, reincarnation as EU trade commissioner.

What does Gordon Brown expect Mr Mandelson to bring to his government?

Is he unaware of the overwhelming negative image that Mr Mandelson projects? He is seen as vain, duplicitous, divisive, self-seeking and unscrupulous and that's by those willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

His return will recall the days when he briefed journalists on a regular basis against fellow ministers, including Mr Brown, while Mr Brown's adviser Charlie Whelan responded in kind.

Is that the model of government that the PM would like to see return or does he believe that the crab has changed his spots?

When Mr Brown took over from Mr Blair last year, he briefly flattered to deceive, promising the catch-all quality of "change" and, more positively, an end to spin.

Change has been consigned to the dustbin and no-one could take seriously any pledge by a government that contains Mr Mandelson to finish with spin.

Indeed, the proof is there in his interview in this weekend's New Statesman when he claims not to have given "a second's thought" to a return to front-line politics after he discussed it with Mr Brown at Labour Party conference.

Tony Blair once said that his project of remaking the Labour Party would only be complete when the party had learned to love Peter Mandelson.

If he meant the 700,000 members that Labour boasted in 1997, that never happened and even today's flimsy, abandoned shell of a party is deeply divided.

This appointment confirms new Labour's determination to continue to reject the demands of working people and to rule in the interests of big business and the rich.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Diary of a Naebody

(Friday 03 October 2008)






GORDON DOWN gives the lowdown on his week.


Thursday
I am requested to fly to Washington for urgent talks on the current banking troubles. Clearly my conference speech has gone down well across the Atlantic!

I am rather busy at the moment, though, as I explained to the US ambassador. "Gordon," he said, "I fear I may have inadvertently misled you with my use of the word 'requested'."

I caught the next plane to the US, stopping only to buy prudent insurance policy against the airline going bust mid-flight.

Friday
The US Treasury secretary explained to the assembled world leaders the intricate detail of his complex and brilliant scheme for saving the US economy from disaster.

"What it is, guys, is we give just about all the money in the world to the bankers and, in exchange..."

He turned his briefing sheet over. There was clearly nothing written on the other side.

He sorted through his papers for a moment and whispered to his aides, before clearing his throat and concluding: "Nope, seems that's it. We give just about all the money in the world to the bankers and then things'll be dandy again." I led the applause. A standing ovation is the very least that this genius deserved.

Monday
I wish everyone would stop referring to my bold measures to prevent banking collapses as "nationalisation." They're not nationalisations, they are banking rescue plans.

I tried to explain this to a group of trade union leaders who I was forced to meet today. I didn't want to meet them, but apparently the man from the electric had shown up at Labour Party HQ with a bailiff and it was a case of either chat up the TUC or have a whip-round for 10p pieces in the Cabinet room.

"This is nothing to do with nationalisation," I explained. "There will be no return to the 1970s. These banks are in terrible trouble and cannot continue on their own. At the same time, they are crucial to this country's economy."
At this, one of the union men, a bald-headed thug with a very common way of speaking, piped up. "Tell you what, brother, the railways are knackered an' all. Any chance of nationalising them?"

It would help if these union bods had even the simplest understanding of economics, but I suppose that is too much to hope for.
Tuesday

And still it gets worse! I just don't understand it. I asked Darling what he thought was causing all the trouble, but he just shrugged. "I don't get it," he said. "We keep doing exactly what the City boys tell us to do and yet the situation continues to deteriorate."

But that was impossible, I told him. Surely no-one could know more about the workings of the City than those who ran it? "It's a mystery, all right," Darling agreed. Then he returned to listening to Deep Purple on his iPod, while I went for a wee lie down.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Please send your feedback on this newsletter to wato@bbc.co.uk

Martha Kearney writes…

So what did he mean by that? The return of Peter Mandelson couldn't be more astonishing. Over the years his loathing of Gordon Brown was widely known. To the Brownites Mandelson was Private Enemy Number One. Now the Prime Minister has done something which even Tony Blair didn't attempt - bring Peter Mandelson back into the Cabinet, something he had asked for again and again. The EU Commissioner has coveted a peerage and a return to his old job (which used to be at the DTI).

I detect the hand of Alastair Campbell in this manoeuvre. He has long regretted his role in Mandelson's second resignation which was seen as giving into the demands of the lobby. Now Campbell has been advising Gordon Brown and must want to reunite the architects of New Labour. It is, of course, highly risky and the chances of a big bust up are high but I guess Peter Mandelson would think very carefully about resigning for a third time.

His good friend the writer Robert Harris told Shaun on Friday's programme:

"I'm extremely surprised. I never thought for a second he'd return to front-line British politics, but I think these are difficult times and it's all hands on deck...I think what it says to me is that the economic conditions are likely to get extremely tough next year, and that Gordon Brown is willing to reach out to virtually anyone to try and help steer the country through it."

The reshuffle also shows how much the tectonic plates have shifted recently.

When Gordon Brown first took over, his watchword was change and the promotion of new talent. The economic crisis means that experience is at a premium again hence the return of Mandelson and Margaret Beckett (another great survivor). The PM must hope that this will sharpen the dividing line with the Tories - and his charge that they are novices.

So where does this leave the Conservatives?

Roy Jenkins once likened Tony Blair's attitude to election victory to an elderly butler carrying a precious Ming vase across a highly polished floor. That's a simile with which David Cameron can identify only now the floor has been strewn with banana skins as well. His team which has emulated New Labour in so many ways has inherited Tony Blair's pessimism about success too. "I am incredibly nervous" one of his inner circle told me in Birmingham this week.

It's not surprising. The economic crisis has changed the political dynamic. Did it overshadow the conference? "Totally", according to one Shadow Cabinet member. "We will get no conference bounce in the polls and Gordon Brown has been strengthened inside the Labour party".

When I met David Davis for lunch, he too acknowledged the problem.

"In a way it gives Brown a stage to walk but a year ago he was feting the end of boom and bust and talking up city slickers. If he was taking credit for it, he's got to take the blame for it."

But the first poll since the Tory conference (ICM for the Guardian) does show a bounce though Gordon Brown gets good ratings on handling an economic crisis. David Cameron's speech - serious and sombre from a lectern - was well received in and outside the hall. But questions remain about his economic policy. Can he still share the proceeds of growth between tax cuts and spending if there is no growth? And what about that pledge to match government spending? George Osborne told us this week that he will definitely be reviewing the final year 2010/11.

Anyway, at the end of the conference season, I am glad to be back sleeping in my own bed and looking forward to what should be a fascinating political time ahead.

Best wishes

Martha


The World at One - Weekdays, 1-1.30pm on BBC Radio 4, 92-95FM and 198LW, digital radio and on the web.

Listen again to the last week's programmes using the BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dnjkq/

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Aren't the rats meant to leave a sinking ship?

(Friday 03 October 2008)

by ADRIAN ROBERTS




BACK FROM THE DEAD: Peter Mandelson.

LABOUR MPs condemned Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "highly divisive" decision to bring twice-disgraced ex-minister Peter Mandelson back into government on Friday.

In the first major reshuffle of the Brown era, EU commissioner Mr Mandelson is to be made a peer so that he can rejoin the government despite not being an MP.


He will take over as Business Secretary from John Hutton, who becomes Defence Secretary.

Arriving in Downing Street on Friday, Mr Mandelson gushed that his new job was a "great challenge and a great opportunity."

He told reporters: "Our economy, like every other, is facing a very hard challenge as a result of the global financial crisis. In a sense, it's all hands on deck."

Bosses' leaders lined up to hail the rightwinger's comeback.


But Labour MPs were dismayed, as the arch-Blairite, who was twice forced to resign from Tony Blair's Cabinet for financial irregularities, is unpopular in the party and throughout the country at large.

Labour Representation Committee chairman John McDonnell MP was "absolutely gobsmacked" at the ex-spin doctor's return to the Cabinet.

Mr McDonnell said that the whole labour movement would be "utterly perplexed" at the Prime Minister's motives for the decision.

"This is an extraordinary step backwards into the worst elements of the Blair era, to reinstate possibly the most divisive figure in Labour's recent history," said Mr McDonnell.

Norwich North MP Ian Gibson said that the appointment saddened him, adding: "You have to ask the question, what has he done apart from new Labour? And we are now going to have to listen to more claptrap from him on globalisation and the 'third way?'

"He is a talented spin doctor, but, at the end of the day, that is the sum of his talents. What is required now is a change of policy, but I have not seen anybody coming in who will do this."

Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle said that Mr Mandelson's recall was a thoroughly "retrograde step" which would do nothing to promote unity within Labour.

"On the contrary, the appointment is highly divisive and he remains a highly divisive figure within the labour movement," he added.

Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths warned that the Brown government was now a "Cabinet of the living dead.

"When the labour movement and public opinion wants progressive policies to tackle the economic crisis, poverty and war, Brown resurrects one of the architects of all three," he said.

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP pointed out that, "if there was ever a time to put the high priest of corporate globalisation in charge of regulating the wayward economy, this isn't it. You might as well get Al Capone to run a young offenders' institution."

In other Cabinet changes, Scottish and Defence Secretary Des Browne will leave the government altogether.

Chief whip Geoff Hoon replaces Ruth Kelly as Transport Secretary. His job goes to current deputy chief whip Nick Brown.

Labour veteran Margaret Beckett returns to the government as Housing Minister, replacing Caroline Flint, while Hilary Benn stays in the Cabinet but in a slimmed-down department with responsibility for food.

Ed Miliband takes charge of a new department for climate change and energy, with Liam Byrne taking his old job at the Cabinet Office.
See reference:
Calculated to outrage
From Young Communist to EU bigwig

The key moments of Peter Mandelson's career

1970s: Briefly a member of the Young Communist League before jumping ship for Labour.

1985: Appointed Labour's director of communications. Lays the foundations for new Labour by focusing on spin and slick presentation and stifling debate at the party conference.



1987: Co-directs Labour's losing campaign in the general election.

1992: One of the few to benefit from Labour's election defeat as he wins the Hartlepool seat.

May 1997: Directs new Labour's victorious election campaign. His reward is to be handed responsibility for the disastrous Millennium Dome.

December 1998: Resigns as trade secretary in the wake of revelations that he had secretly been loaned £373,000 by colleague Geoffrey Robinson to buy a plush home in Notting Hill.

October 1999: Returns to the Cabinet as Northern Ireland secretary. Promptly heckled by unionists when, in his first speech, he refers to himself as "secretary of state for Ireland."

January 2001: Resigns from the government again, this time over claims that he had intervened to help Indian tycoon Srichand Hinduja get a British passport.

November 2004: Lands plum job as EU trade commissioner on a salary of over £150,000 plus perks, allowances and a generous pension.

2005-08: Draws widespread criticism for his handling of the "bra wars" textiles dispute between the EU and China. Instrumental in pushing EU "economic partnership agreements" to force open markets in developing countries.

October 2008: Makes a shock second return to the Cabinet.

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Blair advised Mandelson on return
Peter Mandelson reveals he consulted Tony Blair before accepting a job in Gordon Brown's cabinet.
PM defends Mandelson job
Cabinet who's who
Profile: Peter Mandelson

[Thinking Man's Idiot]