While Gordon was going through his 'we shall fight them in the hedge
funds' routine, stage left his new best friend was slithering into the
House of Lords.
On any normal Monday, the elevation to the peerage of the obnoxious
Peter Mandelson would be dominating every newscast.
It should have been the moment the Lords died of shame. Instead, it was
just another day at the New Labour office.
The world and his wife shrugged. What should have been an 'Oi, Doris'
moment is a matter of indifference.
Lord Gravy of Train: Mandelson at his induction yesterday
Mandelson a Lord? Back in the Cabinet? Par for the course, these days.
He's getting how much from Brussels as part of a 'resettlement'
allowance? A million quid?
Sounds about right. Hurry up, love, The X Factor's about to start.
While Gordon is strutting his stuff, posing as the saviour of the world
banking system, please, please, please don't forget the cynicism and
contempt for decency which went into his rehabilitation of Milly Molly
Mandy.
This administration is beyond venal. Far from being a model of
rectitude, Brown is just another selfish, dishonest chancer on the make,
with unparalleled disdain for any vestige of principle and propriety.
For donkey's years, Charlie Whelan has poured pure poison about
Mandelson in my ear on behalf of Brown.
Come on, Charlie, son, tell us what you really think.
Thing is, it was all true. Every single syllable. Mandelson is the most
vile individual in politics I have ever come across, although Two Jags
runs him close.
He's a liar, a crook and what earlier generations would have called a
'four-letter fellow'. Mandelson embodies the sickening New Labour sense
of moral superiority and entitlement.
I keep coming back to something a disillusioned Left-ish friend of mine,
on what could best be described as the outer circle of New Labour, said
to me about six months after the 1997 landslide.
'The trouble with these people is they think they own the system.'
Nothing better illustrates the shrewd perception of that remark than
yesterday's induction of Lord Gravy of Train.
They really do believe the world owes them a living. As you contemplate
your newly nationalised overdraft and soon-to-be-higher tax bill, pause
to consider the evidence.
Mandelson is to receive a 'golden parachute' payment from Brussels -
in other words, taxpayers - of £78,000 a year to compensate him for
the drop in wages he will have to endure.
That's the difference between the £182,500 stipend to which he was
accustomed as a European Commissioner and the meagre £104,000 he would
otherwise have to scrape by on as a member of the British Cabinet.
Of course, he could have topped that up with an MP's salary. But that
would have meant standing for election. And that would never do, my
dears.
The noise! The people! Plus, Gordon has the same approach to elections
that vampires have to garlic and crosses, so a by-election was a non-
starter.
It's not even as if Mandelson was made redundant. He left of his own
volition. So why the hell should he receive a pay-off?
This is corruption, pure and simple, in any language.
It's not the first time, either. As I've pointed out previously, he was
bunged north of 20 grand out of the poor box when he was twice forced to
resign in disgrace. And he's now on the payroll for life, with hot and
cold running flunkies at his beck and call.
Gordon didn't bring him back because of his innate brilliance. He did it
because he thought Mandelson would get the Slop Bucket Kid off his case
and put Milburn and Byers back in their boxes. This was a reckless
investment in Gordon futures at public expense.
They'd never have got away with it in America. Over there, if the
President wants to bring an outsider into the government, said
individual has to go before a Congressional scrutiny committee and is
subject to a forensic background check by the Feds.
In Mandelson's case, they wouldn't need to bother. He wouldn't get
within a sniff of high office. Despite being a soi-disant Sultan of
Spin, he's useless at it - which is why he keeps getting found out.
The other thing I fail to understand is why anyone indulges him. No sane
person would keep him as a pet. I'd rather have the neighbourhood nonce
round for a Gary Glitter-themed children's birthday party. Yet he always
seems to be on the guest list at the kind of soirees which make it into
the gossip columns.
Commentators who should know better write about him as if he's a proper
person. One dopey bird in another newspaper described him as a 'poppet'.
I've lost count of the times I've seen this pygmy described as a 'big
hitter'. I can think of two words beginning with 'b' and 'h' and ending
in 'er' which better sum him up - and 'big hitter' they ain't.
Mandelson manages to rival Blair in the freeloading stakes. We learned
at the weekend that his intimate lunch in Corfu with George Osborne, at
which he used every opportunity to rubbish Gordon, was paid for by an
American film director.
(Incidentally, this doesn't reflect well on Osborne, either. There was
no need to leak his private conversation - we all know Gordon and
Mandy hate each other - and it only draws attention to the fact that
politics is a cosy club where they've all got more in common with each
other than with the voters. Why the hell would you want to tell anyone
you'd broken a lamb chop with a sleazebucket like Mandelson?)
Buried away in the story was the fact that Mandy and Reinaldo had flown
to Corfu from Italy, where they were staying as a guest of a sausage
manufacturer.
There's a headline for you: Mandy and The Sausage Merchant.
You really couldn't make this stuff up.
And it was also revealed that he'd enjoyed the hospitality of a Russian
aluminium tycoon, who was exempted from EU import duty when Mandelson
was trade commissioner.
No conflict of interest there, then. The full details of that particular
murky deal have yet to emerge. I have no doubt the dogs of war are
already crawling all over it. Watch this space.
For now, the most nauseating sight I've seen in many a long year was the
smug, thin-lipped smile on Mandelson's face as he took his oath, with
the cheers of the parliamentary Labour Party ringing in his ears.
In any decent society, the other peers would have walked out in disgust.
That they stayed put tells you even more about them and our rotten
political system than the ennoblement of this pernicious popinjay.
Blair, Brown and the rest of this ghastly crew have utterly debased
public life in Britain.
I can't improve on the signature pay- off of the late John Junor,
formerly of this parish.
Pass the sick bag, Alice.
http://www.dailymai
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008
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