« Magazine Rack - Issue 436 | All Posts | Clarifying Cameron's views on the 50p tax » Robert Crampton's interview with Peter Mandelson, published inThe Times this weekend, is very well done, as you would expect. I was particularly struck by this: In terms of his own ambition beyond the election, “it depends on the result”. His political career, he admits, “has not been as successful as I wished. You have certain goals and I never achieved them. That’s a disappointment for me.” (He wanted to be Foreign Secretary, like his grandfather, Herbert Morrison.) Could he not still attain very high office? “I think time has run out for me,” he sighs. Two things are interesting about this. The first is the tragedy of him feeling disappointed by his political career. By any account he has had a stellar career. Not only has he held really dizzyingly high office, but he has been massively influential on two Prime Ministers. He changed the Labour Party profoundly. And in the great political dispute of his life, his antagonist was forced to surrender humiliatingly. How could he possibly be disappointed? The second interesting thing is that he has clearly given up on the next General Election. How else can one read him saying that his future depends on the result, but that time has run out for him?April 27, 2009
Has Peter Mandelson given up?
Monday, 27 April 2009
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