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.

For years Mandelson and Brown weren’t talking, now Mandelson is once again at the heart of everything the Labour Party is plotting.

Darling has been the steady rock always at Gordon’s side during the credit crunch, often taking the flak from the media for the government’s handling of the crisis.

But when it comes to talking to the world’s most powerful decision makers and hob nobbing in an exclusive ski resort, Lord Mandy gets the call.

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.

But there lies the conundrum, slightly scruffy Clarke, a member of the House of Commons, or lower house, will never growl across the dispatch box at his well-coutured, well-coiffed
opposite number, who has established his den in the Lords, or upper chamber.

This is rankling lawmakers who feel that on matters such as Tuesday’s 2.3 billion pound rescue package for the car industry, the commons, which represents the people, should take primacy and senior ministers should be subject to proper scrutiny. A grilling in the Lords is about as severe as being savaged by a dead sheep.

So, instead of seeing two veterans of the Westminster jungle battle it out face to face, we were reduced to the pair trading soundbite insults in various television studios.

Is this what politicians mean when they say they are getting creative with democracy?

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.

Put on the spot, an embarrassed-looking Cameron admitted that Conservative wags had named a unit of time after the newly-appointed Business Secretary’s surname.

The Tory wits define it as the time it takes between meeting the former EU Trade Commissioner and him saying something rude about Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Cameron confirmed.

“The point is that everyone who knows Peter Mandelson who has bumped into him recently has heard that he doesn’t always have great things to say about the prime minister,” the Tory leader said.

Taking note of the apparent rapprochement between two of the architects of New Labour, Cameron added: “A Mandelson will probably get a bit longer now.”

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.

“The Labour spin on this reshuffle is that the Tories will be ‘nervous’ about this reshuffle and will be terrified by Mandelson. You’ve got to laugh, haven’t you?” said Iain Dale in his blog.

Quoting a Labour figure who described the move as a “masterstroke”, Dale wrote: “I wonder if the electorate will be as welcoming of the appointment.”

Mandelson has been a Cabinet minister twice, and resigned twice, during Tony Blair’s premiership, and most recently was the EU trade commissioner.

A loyal Blairite, he and Brown rarely saw eye-to-eye. When Brown took over from Blair, he signalled an end to the spin which had come to be seen by many to characterise his predecessor’s tenure, believing the electorate had become weary of the glitz.

“Whatever happened to an ‘End to Spin’,” Guido Fawkes, another high-profile right-wing blogger, asked.

“New Labour lives!” he exclaimed.

With a cheeky aside, he added: “Am beginning to think that Brown has been quite clever, with the return of Mandelson, he will no longer be the public’s most hated Labour politician. This is going to be more fun than an Irish wake.”

Comments on the website LibDemBlogs also pointed to the prospects of a reawakening of spin.

“Last year Gordon Brown promised an end to spin. This year he brings Peter Mandelson back into government. That is all you need to know about the bankruptcy of Brown’s government,” Bernard Salmon wrote.

A Lanson Boy wrote on the site: “By bringing in the likes of Mandelson he (Brown) is aiming to show that even the Blairites could do no better.”

Left-wing bloggers seemed a bit dazed by the appointment, but they could not help hinting at back-room deals.

Recess Monkey blog observed that Mandelson’s appointment came shortly after his acolyte Derek Draper had a meeting with the prime minister.

“Draper … is left alone in a room with the Prime Minister. Soon after, the PM ennobles mandelson and invites him into Cabinet,” he wrote.

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.

Mandelson was for years an arch-enemy of Brown’s in former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s cabinet. The two rarely saw eye-to-eye and Brown’s deputies were open in making clear their dislike of Mandelson’s rival power-base to Brown’s at the Treasury.

A devoted-Blairite, Mandelson was dubbed the “Prince of Darkness” for his behind-the-scenes manoeuvring.

Brown’s decision to bring him back into government probably reflects several things: one, an acknowledgement that Mandelson is a skilled, confident politician who can get the job done. At a time of crisis, it says “better to bury the hatchet and get the best people on board” rather than keeping him isolated because of long-held grudges.

It also may reflect a desire to bring someone who is close to the levers of power in Brussels and the European Union back into the fold so that Britain is better positioned to handle its European ties at a time of global crisis, while also maintaining its close coordination with the United States.

The risk for Brown is that Mandelson ends up becoming an alternative power centre within the cabinet again. In many respects he outranks every other member of the cabinet for skills and experience.

That strength may damp down those — like Foreign Secretary David Miliband or Justice Secretary Jack Straw — who have been mentioned as possible challengers to Brown, but it may also mean that Mandelson is there to enter the fray should Brown’s position as prime minister ever be formally challenged.

Other elements of the re-shuffle were also of note. Margaret Beckett, a former foreign secretary and long-time Labour stalwart, is also brought back into the cabinet, another move that smacks of Brown wanting to surround himself with experienced, older faces rather than the new guard that has emerged over his past 16 months in office. She is expected to play a role as cabinet enforcer.

Another interesting move was the promotion of John Hutton, another Blairite, to run the Defence Ministry, sidelining Des Browne, a Scotsman and ally of the prime minister who is widely regarded by the military establishment to have been an ineffective defence secretary at a time when Britain is overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The details of the re-shuffle, expected to be formally set out later on Friday, are likely to be picked over for days. But the repurcussions of Mandelson’s elevation could last much longer than that.

Brown will be hoping they are positive rumblings, with Mandelson taking a tight hold of his portfolio in dealing with the economic crisis. But some in the cabinet — particularly long-term Brown-backers who always saw Mandelson as the enemy — may be quaking in their boots.