The business secretary discusses whether Tony Blair has a realistic chance of getting the job.

Continue reading "FT video: Lord Mandelson on why Blair should be EU president"

The rumour swilling around conference this morning is that the News International party last night was a rather strained affair; given that news broke of the Sun’s defection to the Tories half way through. Various cabinet ministers heard about the news as they were swigging Murdoch’s free beverages. Some observers later heard Lord Mandelson tell NI executives in no uncertain terms that they were out of line*. Apparently a c-word was used.  Mandelson has since insisted that the word in question was “chump”.

* The Sun’s move appears to have been timed for maximum political impact, just hours after Brown’s speech. The rumour is that new editor Dominic Mohan didn’t bother to tell GB (despite a phone conversation earlier yesterday) that the bombshell was primed. Mohan is not even here in Brighton. Meanwhile it’s interesting that the Scottish version of the Sun will not back the Conservatives.

UPDATE

4pm: Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, has just ripped up a copy of the Sun to enthusiastic cheers. He said: “We don’t need any Australian-American coming to our country, with a paper that’s never supported one progressive policy from our party, including the minimum wage, telling us how our politics should be run.”

Irwin Stelzer in the Telegraph

Philip Stephens in the FT

Times editorial

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian

Rod Liddle in the Spectator

Jackie Ashley in the Guardian

Editorial in The Economist

The Washington Post

Here is my exclusive from this morning’s FT. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

And here is the accompanying piece.

This is the tale in a nutshell:

Lord Mandelson met Colonel Gaddafi’s son at a Corfu villa only a week before the announcement that the perpetrator of the Lockerbie bombing could be released from prison, the Financial Times has learnt.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, widely seen as the Libyan leader’s most likely successor, was a fellow guest of the Rothschild family at its Greek property a fortnight ago in a wider annual gathering of powerful friends.

Stays by the two men overlapped by only one night, according to Lord Mandelson’s spokesman.

He said the pair spoke only briefly but they did discuss Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. “There was a fleeting conversation about the prisoner; Peter was completely unsighted on the subject,” he said.

It was only one week later that news emerged that Mr Megrahi could get an early release on compassionate grounds because he is suffering from terminal cancer.

Lord Mandelson said through his spokesman that he had had no involvement in the decision and only learnt of it through the BBC. Mr Megrahi’s possible release was a decision entirely for the Scottish government rather than London.

“It was entirely coincidental,” the spokesman said.

For a glimpse into the world occupied by the likes of Nat Rothschild and his friend Said Al-Gaddafi it’s worth reading this blog by Taki.

I reported earlier in the week that Peter Slowe, chair of the Labour Finance & Industry Group, was out and about calling for Mandelson as prime minister. Since then I have enjoyed a coffee with Mr Slowe - who could not have been more explicit about his cunning plan.

Now some anonymous Labour rebels (presumably frustrated Blairites) are keen to see Mandelson stand at the next general election, according to Patrick Hennessy in the Sunday Telegraph. They have even identified a possible seat currently held by Hilary Armstrong.

The dismissive reaction from Mandelson’s spokesman: “It is the start of the silly season.”

I’m not so sure. Granted, PM for PM may seem an outlandish prospect. But a year ago no one would have predicted that the then Brussels exile would now be the second most powerful man in government.

The bookies’ odds are still long, 16:1, but have shortened from 200:1 in recent weeks.

Lord Mandelson recently batted away the prospect of his becoming Labour leader by pointing out that he couldn’t leave the House of Lords. (“I am trapped. I believe it is for life.”) . Since then, of course, the legislation has been changed - co-incidentally they say - for peers to become commoners again.

But who would want Mandy as prime minister, for all his manifold strengths?

Step forward Peter Slowe, recently re-appointed as chairman of the Labour Finance and Industry Group - which contains 300 business supporters.

Mr Slowe told the Scotsman this morning: “(Lord] Mandelson is the only one in the Labour ranks who could realistically take on the Tories and win.” Slowe is an arch-Blairite who first led the Labour Finance group in the 1990s.

The Herald has a similar story, with Slowe quoted as saying Mandelson had the “clout, intellect and charisma” to take on the Tories.

Not sure that the appointment would go down well among the Campaign group or other left-wing corners of Labour.

This seemingly harmless logo, replete with an upwardly mobile Union Flag, has sparked a terrific Whitehall squabble.

It is a Mandelson seal of approval that is likely to appear on every idea, plan, proposal and initiative the government produces in coming months. Continue reading "The squabble over Mandelson’s Union Jack"

A hat tip to Threadneedles (one of our readers) for pointing out that Lord Mandelson has been made “First Secretary of State” - which means he is the new deputy prime minister.

It’s on Wikipedia already so it must be true (ed: this is gentle irony). Here is Wiki’s definition of the honorific title.

Mandelson has effectively been acting as Brown’s deputy for some time. Perhaps this is a reward for his not getting the Foreign Office?

The title was used by Michael Heseltine, who was simultaneously a deputy PM and first secretary of state. Ditto John Prescott.

UPDATE

Harriet Harman will continue to deputise at PM’s question time, says No 10. But isn’t that because Mandelson doesn’t sit in the House of Commons?