Fallen, Finally...

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The Peter Mandelson affair grinds on; the dark angel's fall from grace accelerating exponentially as he approaches terminal velocity toward the Ground Zero of his own making. The problem is that some of us could see he was a car crash waiting to happen back in the New Labour days. He must have a hefty dose of personal charisma in the flesh, so to speak, as he never came over as anything but an ineffectual political operator, either on screen or by deed itself to us here in reality-land. He struck me back then, a quarter of a century ago, as a bit of a no-mark, and that view hasn't changed since. The biggest sin in all of this affair, though,  is that he managed to schmooze his way back to a position of handsomely-paid influence under a newly-minted Labour government dedicated on paper to avoiding the mis-steps and sleaze of the outgoing Tory mess that preceded them. Starmer's decision to drag out this [old] New Labour fossil was obviously a disaster in the making from day one.

Given the prime minister's obvious native caution - writ large in his very demeanour - surely the circumspect route to have taken, so far as the US ambassadorial rôle was concerned, would have been to appoint the usual anonymous Eton/Sandhurst, preferably decorated, ex-military type to the job; far safer and very less likely to court controversy or scandal. Sometimes boring is just the ticket. Giving your dodgy mate the post, despite his history shouting "Nooooh!" at you, is disingenuous at best. I wish that someone in the Labour Party/government would just bite the bullet and re-employ the only worthwhile ex-New Labour team member and spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, to front their PR. Despite the New Labour bullshit that he worked so successfully with, he alone knows how to guide this well-meaning but naive Labour government through the morass of modern politicking to a place of safety, so that their obvious good intentions can quietly, boringly, be brought to fruition in the background...

Comments

  1. Anonymous5 February 2026 at 12:41

    I think this is inevitably another nail in Starmers ever growing coffin and the time is now fast approaching when the party will say enough and there will be a challenge to his leadership. Whatever you think of the man it is probably in the party interest that this should happen sooner rather than later, especially if they are to have a chance of reversing their dismal standing in the polls. Steve

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sideways5 February 2026 at 16:24

      Regrettably, I tend to agree with you, my old mucker...

      Delete

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