When Prime Minister Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet last week, fending off a challenge to his authority, a significant outcome was the creation of one of the most powerful ministerial jobs Britain has seen in years.

Peter Mandelson, a former European commissioner who has twice served in British governments in the past and twice been forced to resign, was reconfirmed as secretary of state for business, but also given greatly expanded authorities that make him a powerful if unofficial number two to Brown.

Much fun has been made of Mandelson’s new title, which because he has been elevated to the House of Lords in order to serve in the cabinet now officially reads as:

“Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham, Lord President of the Council, First Secretary of State, and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.”

But the length of the introduction aside, Mandelson’s new post puts him at the heart of tackling Britain’s worst recession in 60 years and planning for how the Labour government is going to rebound from a 20-point deficit in opinion polls to mount a challenge at the next election, due by June 2010.

Almost immediately it has also put pundits on watch about the possibility of Britain joining the European single currency, however unlikely that may be in the near term, since Mandelson is a committed European and euro-phile.

In comments in Germany last week, he described adopting the currency as “obviously” still an objective for the government.

“It is perfectly clear that the euro has been a great success in anchoring its eurozone members during this financial crisis,” Mandelson said after a speech in Berlin.

“Does it remain an important objective for Britain to find itself in the same currency as that single market in which it interacts? Obviously yes,” he said, adding: “That has to be a decision taken on the right terms, in the right circumstances and conditions, and therefore at a future time than we have now.”

Despite his hedging, bookmakers responded quickly to his comments, shortening the odds on Britain joining the euro before the end of the next parliament to 10/1.

“Europe and the single currency is always a divisive issue,” odds-maker Ladbrokes said. “But Lord Mandelson’s increasing power base means that it may again rise to the top of the political agenda.”

Surveys show that most of the British public does not favour giving up the pound for the euro, but many exporters and importers are keener on its adoption, which would neutralise exchange rate risks, even if it would also get rid of the comparative advantages sterling fluctuations can create. Almost 60 percent of Britain’s trade is with the European Union.

Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair always sidestepped the euro issue, but Mandelson’s newly influential role may allow him to nudge it back onto the agenda.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown might be having a hard time with women, but there is clearly no glass ceiling in his good friend Sir Alan Sugar’s boardroom.

“The Apprentice” final saw Kate Walsh and Yasmina Siadatan go stiletto-to-stiletto — “You’re the best that I’ve ever had in the final in this boardroom,” said Sugar.

The two 27-year-olds had to come up with a new type of chocolate and develop a marketing campaign for their brand which they had to pitch to advertising, confectionery and retail experts.

Licensing development manager Walsh’s “Choc D’Amour” was the better tasting chocolate but at £13 a pop left Sugar less than impressed.

Restaurateur Siadatan’s “Cocoa Electric” brand was seven pounds cheaper and if the taste of her chocolates clearly left a lot to be desired — one retail buyer said no shopper would come back for another box –  the mass-market pitch she put together had Sugar salivating.

It was enough for the tycoon to raise his finger and point it in Siadatan’s direction and tell her she was hired. Promising Sugar she would be his best ever apprentice, Siadatan will now get the chance to work in his business empire on a 100,000 pounds-a-year salary.

“I’m absolutely up for it,” said Siadatan. “I think Sir Alan knows my qualities, the best way to make use of me.”

That will involve working for Sugar’s Amscreen company, which supplies doctor’s surgeries and hospitals with free-of-charge digital signage units that display adverts and patient messages.

“Yasmina seemed to have that real business instinct, not just in sales or anything like that,” said Sugar. “She’s innovative and understands the plot of where we’re going. It’s gut instinct, I can’t explain it.”

Men had a rough time of it in the 2009 series. Only James McQuillan managed to reach last week’s interview round, but he was fired along with Debra Barr and Lorraine Tighe.

Was Siadatan a worthy winner of “The Apprentice” and what does her and Walsh’s success on the show say about the supposed glass ceiling in business?

Among the surprises last week, as one cabinet minster after another stepped down, was Gordon Brown’s appointment of Sir Alan Sugar as the government’s Enterprise Tsar.

Was this a sound decision, several analysts wondered, or was it a possible case of Brown seeming to confuse the worlds of politics and show business, hoping perhaps that what works in the studio would work just as well in the real world?

The star of the BBC show “The Apprentice” was to be offered a peerage and would take a role as an adviser on matters affecting small and medium-sized businesses.

But the Conservatives are objecting. They say Sugar should not be working for the government and front a TV show at the same time, particularly when the next series of the Apprentice goes out early in 2010 just a few months before a general election. The appointment, they contend, breaches BBC rules on political independence and impartiality.

Sugar himself insists there is no conflict of interest. ‘It’s very simple - all I am is an adviser, I’m not a policymaker,’ he says. ”I have been loyal to Gordon Brown and the Labour Party for quite a while, but I also have my loyalties to the BBC.”

Do you believe Sugar should have been appointed? Or is Gordon Brown perfectly entitled to have who he likes in his government of all the talents, especially someone with such proven business acumen?

“All I can do is advise those that are in charge of making policy from a business point of view … what’s right and what’s wrong,” he told Sky News.

It’s fair to say that investing in Iraq is not for the faint-hearted.

Just last week more than 200 people were killed in suicide bombings across the country, while kidnapping and armed assault remain commonplace.

That said, more than 600 delegates still turned up to the Invest Iraq 2009 conference held in London this week, eager to find out what opportunities there might be in the oil, construction, petrochemicals, engineering, agriculture, transport and tourism industries, to name a few.

From City of London bankers to executives from Shell and Chevron, bosses from energy service companies and airport construction firms, management training specialists and security advisers, they were all there, milling around a west London hotel in their smartest suits, seeing what business they might be able to do.

There were plenty of Iraqis too. Mostly businessmen with operations outside the country — in Lebanon, Jordan or Dubai — and now looking to step up investment in their homeland.

Some of them, perhaps feeling more familiar with the lay of the land than Western investors, had already made sizeable moves into Iraq, but judging from the questions they were putting to the Iraqi officials speaking at the conference, they were concerned about a lack of legal direction from the government.

One Iraqi was particularly illustrative of the potential pitfalls that can befall investors.

During a seminar on Iraq’s new investment law, which is supposed to make it quicker and easier to pour money into the country, he stood up to ask a question. Dressed in a smart pinstripe suit, he looked every part the international entrepreneur as he grabbed the mircophone.

“I am worried,” he said, his concern audible in his voice. “I have $400 million invested in Iraq. I have built several hotels already and I am just completing the construction of a new 400-room, five-star hotel in Kerbala,” he said, referring to a religious city in southern Iraq that is a popular destination for religious tourism.

“I am worried,” he continued, “because I do not yet have planning permission for any of the buildings.”

There was silence in the room as the audience digested just how out on a limb he was.

“Have you asked for it?” a government representative on the panel asked.

“Yes,” said the man. “I asked three years ago and I keep asking but I have heard nothing.”

After a pause the government official mumbled something about the issue being tackled: “This is something that regional authorities should be looking at. They need to speed up the process,” he said, before moving on to the next question.

The businessman did not look particularly reassured as he sat back down.

Women should be considered for new board positions in banks bailed out by the government, to counter the male dominance of senior directorships at the biggest companies, the Cranfield School of Management has recommended.

It points to the fact that the number of female directors in FTSE 100 firms has barely risen over the past 10 years, with more than a fifth still run by all-male boards.

Do you think it has a point? Or is it a bad idea to set quotas and targets in this way?

By Francesca Lagerberg, head of the national tax office, Grant Thornton

Most Budgets have all the attraction of being slapped in the face with a wet kipper and sadly this one is unlikely to reverse the trend. As expected, from today up goes the cost of booze (4p on a pint) and fags (11p on a packet). Also for those who like driving larger less-green new cars there is a “showroom” tax coming in from 2009 that could cost them around 950 pounds.

However, for the entrepreneur there was a little cheer. After strong representations from business, Chancellor Alistair Darling has deferred the “income shifting” rules that were due to start from this April. These were a direct attack on family-owned businesses that include lower tax paying family members who take out dividends or profits but make a less significant contribution to the business. A case last year (Jones v Garnett) went against the government and it was looking to legislate to get the result it wanted. The proposals were wide-ranging and ill-targeted. A deferral will hopefully allow time to revisit this whole approach.

The working family got several name-checks in the Budget speech and this broadly amounts to an increase in child benefit (20 pounds per week for the first child) and the child element of child tax credit, but this will not take effect until April 2009.

There was no further change to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime so that from April 6 all individuals will be paying at a flat rate of 18 percent with the only hope of reducing the charge being a special entrepreneurs’ relief that has stringent qualifying conditions, but may help the smaller business to take their charge down to an effective rate of 10 percent. However, some others clearly benefit under the new regime. For example, those looking to sell a buy-to-let property after April will find that the new rules help them as the best tax rate they would get under the existing legislation would be 24 percent.

For non-domiciled individuals, the Chancellor provided further details on the radical changes taking effect from April 6. If they want to continue to get the tax advantages of being non-domiciled in the UK after then they will have to pay 30,000 pounds for the privilege once they are resident here for seven out of the past 10 years. However, for those who would not remotely be able to pay such a high levy remitting just small amounts of foreign income (2,000 pounds) will not be caught. This is a slight increase on the original 1,000 pound proposal. There is also a new test of where you were at midnight to work out what days you were really present in the UK, which may be more useful to internationally mobile workers than the rules we heard of last October at the pre-Budget report.

So, overall Darling’s first Budget was short on drama, but long on minor detail. A massive 207 pages of back-up notes support the Budget Red Book. For most people this event will provide little to cheer, but equally little to passionately dislike.