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Jokes wear thin at ill-tempered Labour event
Labour strategy chief Peter Mandelson berated the media at a press conference this morning for failing to focus on policy. Then he repeatedly side-stepped questions on the most important policy challenge of all: where are the tens of billions of pounds of spending cuts needed to halve the deficit going to come from?
Of course Labour are not alone in dodging that thorniest of questions. David Cameron keeps repeating that his Conservatives have gone “further than any opposition in history” in spelling out proposed spending cuts, starting with 6 billion pounds in unspecified “efficiency savings” this year. But his insistence cannot mask the fact that the Tories’ planned cuts, like Labour’s and indeed the Liberal Democrats’, add up to only a fraction of what is required.
Still, this was Labour’s press conference and it was a chance for them to be more specific. But they didn’t take it. Instead we got multiple promises to protect or even increase certain family-friendly benefits and services .
There was also a new and sinister campaign broadcast depicting heartless bureaucrats in suits and ties marching into happy families’ homes to tell them that the Tory government was taking away their child tax credit, child trust fund and guaranteed speedy appointment with a cancer specialist. So much for positive campaigning and taking Labour’s hopeful message out to the country. (Again, the Tories have their own scare tactics. Their latest campaign broadcast was not on their policies but on the perils of a hung parliament.)
Once a prince of darkness, now loving the limelight
“Enjoy it!” That was the message from Peter Mandelson to Labour supporters this morning as he launched a vitriolic attack on the Conservatives during a speech in central London, clearly relishing every minute of it. Once nicknamed the “prince of darkness” for his ability to mastermind Labour’s strategy from behind the scenes, Mandelson has transformed into the party’s best public performer.
It was different in the days of Tony Blair, who could go out and dazzle the voters with his easy charm and passionate oratory, leaving Mandelson to the backroom strategic thinking that helped sweep New Labour into power in 1997 and keep them there for 13 years. Now fronted by Gordon Brown, whose strength lies more in his grasp of policy detail than in his presentational skills, and trailing the Conservatives in the polls a month before an election, Labour need all the charisma they can get. Mandelson has stepped up to deliver it, with evident jubilation.
Mandelson slip-up confirms eurosceptics’ fears
Business minister Peter Mandelson built his reputation as a sure-footed communicator for the Labour Party, but the former EU trade commissioner suffered a rare slip-up on Friday when he confirmed many eurosceptics’ fears that the European Commission relished its lack of democratic accountability.
“The best principle of the European Commission ever invented was that it should not be elected — that it was remote, unaccountable, a major bureaucracy that could do good for Europe and can take the risks of saying things and doing things that are not as easy to do in the member states,” said Mandelson.
How big a problem is workplace bullying?
A political row is brewing after allegations of bullying were aimed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The claims, made in a book and published in a Sunday newspaper, accused Brown of several abusive outbursts, including grabbing staff by the lapels, shoving them aside and shouting at them.
Downing Street has strenuously denied that the “malicious allegations” are true, while Conservative leader David Cameron has said he expects there to be an inquiry into the claims.
Will a free market for news media harm impartiality?
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson took a subtle dig at the Murdoch News empire this week when he said that some in the commercial sector want to maintain an “iron grip” on pay TV and “to erode the commitment to impartiality — in other words, to fill British airwaves with more Fox-style news.”
“They believe that profit alone should drive the gathering and circulation of news rather than allowing a role for what they call ‘state-sponsored journalism’,” he added, during the second reading of the Digital Economy Britain bill.
Sorry Darling, Davos is for Mandy
If there were any questions over who is number two in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet, Davos might have helped clear them up.
While Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is giving the annual gathering of global big wigs a miss, business minister Lord Peter Mandelson has found the time to go.
Big Beasts in different cages
They are known as the “big beasts”, those polticians that hold, or have held, heavyweight government posts and stalk the landscape as if they own it.
The return of Ken Clarke to the Conservative front bench as business spokesman offered Westminster watchers the delicious prospect of watching an admired political performer take on
another just as adept at the stalk and kill in the form of Peter, now Lord, Mandelson.
How long is a Mandelson?
Peter Mandelson has told the Observer that he and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have put their differences behind them and the pair are now “joined at the hip”.
But that didn’t stop Conservative leader David Cameron enjoying a joke at Mandelson’s expense on BBC TV’s Politics Show.
Labour in a spin – opposition bloggers
Right-wing bloggers did not even try to disguise their glee.
The reported return of Peter Mandelson, the “Prince of Darkness”, to the Labour government smacked of a flight to spin, they said.
Gordon Brown, facing economic and financial crisis as well as poor poll ratings, has been shaken into turning to the once fear-inspiring maestro of party tactics.
A big beast prowls Westminster again
Gordon Brown was always expected to reshuffle his cabinet this week, but Friday’s series of chessboard moves were more dramatic than any commentators were predicting.
The most interesting shift is that of Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, back to Britain to take on the role of business secretary in the cabinet, probably with a focus on managing the fallout from the economic crisis.
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The Wall
