Will Peter Mandelson end up a national treasure?

Hereford

Whether or not you believe(d) in his views, Benn had/has integrity and honesty which belies this comparison. I think it is insulting to him to put him in the same category as this odious little man.

oldtimer

No, he has too much history, despite your efforts.

Am I alone in thinking that you are part of the Labour spin machine?

Ian C

I am at a total loss to know what you guys are playing at. The man is an anathema to everything the Speccie stands for yet sprinkles the ground under him with holy water and humiliates Osbourne - who has not filled himself with glory, it has to be said. Please get a grip.

Mike, Brighton

I would not believe everything Peter Mandelson says. I believe he has some form with half-truths, lies and deceptions?

Bernard from Horsham

What a ridiculous blogpost. Are there not more serious matters at hand.

C Powell

What on earth makes you think that Tony Blair has worked his way into our affections since he left power?

Alex Creel

Break a bl**dy leg!

wonderfulforhisage

"Tony Benn proves that even the most controversial political figures can work their way into the nation’s affections once they are out of power."

Yes and however critical one was of Tony Benn's politics one had to admire his integrity.

Mark

Mr Forsyth,

Has he got something on you or are you off your rocker?

Hysteria

this is BS - can we talk about somethimng serious? I can go to the Daily Mash for the satire...

Gerald Cheshire

Tories might have had sleaze back in the nineties, but this odious creep is pure slime. Totally untrustworthy. If you think otherwise you have not been paying attention.

Tiberius

I can see Mandy on "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here", but not as a contestant.

Alex

Is this article for real?

The Labour spin machine now has The Spectator within it's spell, who next, Guido / Ian Dale?

liz Brown

You're 'avin' a laarf aren't you?

Augustus

Mr Forsyth, at the Awards, didn't he do well?

Anthony

"Much loved", you say.
Hmm, sounds like a Freudian slip to me!

Tony Sharp

Others got here before me, so I can only echo some of the comments above.

As much as I would fight tooth and nail to oppose almost everything Tony Benn believes in and stands for, I nonetheless respect him for his principles and integrity.

Mandelson has neither of those qualities. He is a proven liar and his only skill is perverting language to make an unreasonable policy or assertion appear reasonable.

National treasure? I know Britain has been dragged into the gutter over the last 11 years, but I did not think we had gone as far into the sewer as that!

BrianSJ

This post is part of the degrading slide of politics into 'celebrity'. The twice-disgraced David Blunkett gets treated with 'respect' by the State broadcaster, and there seems no place for honourable behaviour. Mandelson should be shunned and spat at for the way he has behaved.

Rob Atkins

No he won't go on Struictly Come dancing - they have voting there ! I do think he should be treated as a national treasure though - locked in a vault somewhere ...

Rob Atkins

James - what on earth possesses you to speak well of Mandelson ? He is beneath contempt

Jonathan

Am I on the right website ? Is this really the Spectator ???

mac

Mandelson ballroom dancing on national TV?

He'd look scrawny in a Cherie Lunghi-style dress, but I'm sure there are plenty of spare Barbara Cartland head-to-toe numbers in pink that will serve very well.

And who to partner him? If T Blair can't make it, and G Brown won't - being the serious man for serious times that he is - then K Maguire or A Marr would doubtless gladly embrace the noble Lord's person.

(As for T Benn, he belongs in the same national oddities gallery as the Mitford sisters).

wight tory

Sounds like you've been wooed to the dark side. This odious specimin needs to be kept at arms length, either that, or the left/right split is over lapping.

Stay focused on trhe job in hand, this government need a good thrashing, and kept thrashing unto after the GE

Wily Trout

I think you have a long, long time to go before Mandelson 'leaves the political stage'.

Gil Hedley

Mandelson is already a national treasure. He excels at everything the political journos love to hate.

Kevyn Bodman

Not for the first time I wonder if you are playing a silly internal office game to see what sort of ridicilous post you can get away with.

I agree with every commenter above who has denounced Mandelson and expressed respect for Benn.

If the original post was not, in fact, a joke then James Forsyth should take a few days off and do some reading on the 'achievements' of Mandelson in office and, more importantly his reasons for 'leaving' the Cabinet twice in the past.
Mandelson did not behave honestly.
Don't you realise how important that is. Mandelson did not behave honestly.

It's got nothing to do with his politics.It's easy to respect opponents.
Hillary Clinton is a huge admirer of Barry Goldwater, and not because she is a political soulmate.
Because he behaved honestly.
Mandelson did not behave honestly.

The Laughing Cavalier

Perhaps in 30 years time this time may come to pass. But not before. Mondays are often slow days so I suppose we must forgive this particular exercise in kite-flying but have a care, young Forsyth, such jests are dangerous, for you might induce apoplexy in your elders.

CS

Maybe a few of those writing for Coffee House might take a leaf out of Benn's book and practise a little integrity and consistency instead of trying to wedge their noses as far as possible up the backside of whoever happens to have had a good media day in the past 24 hours.

Sucking up to whoever seems strongest at the moment and kicking whoever appears weakest, only to switch sides the minute the wind changes direction - that doesn't even have the merit of being the behaviour of an out-and-out bully. Merely that of a bully's crowd of sycophants and acolytes.

Was it only a year ago that Coffee House was hailing Gordon Brown as a political genius and the apointment of Stephen Carter as an act of tactical wisdom? Was it only six months ago that the same writers were telling us that Gordon Brown was a hopelessly doomed incompetent? And now the wheel has come round again.

If you want to be respected as men of political insight and wisdom, try making long-term predictions that come to pass instead of sellotaping your opinion to the mast of the latest headline.

As for Tony Benn, he's become a "national treasure" only since he stopped giving answers to his own questions. When a man makes trite statements like: "nuclear annihilation is a bad thing", and "unemployment is a bad thing", naturally everyone thinks he's a wise man of vision. But some of us can remember the time when he used to add his solutions to the end of those sentences: "therefore we must unilaterally disarm" and "therefore we must nationalise and put the unions in charge of industry".

National treasure, my ****!

George Laird

Dear All

When I was a child, I saw the movie Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff.

In the movie, the monster is seen to be the one with the most humanity, when Mandelson departs stage left, he will still be the monster, a wretched individual.

And not missed either.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Chris

Commenters are being much too kind to Tony Benn, deputy arselicker-in-chief (in the absence of George Galloway) to Saddam Hussein. He is a lot nastier than is generally thought, and insufferably vain to boot.

Tiberius

Never trust a man who wears a tank top with a jacket and tie.

cuffleyburgers

Tony Benn was true to his misguided views and everyhting he did and said, however wrong, was aimed to the genuine good of his countrymen.

mandelson is a piece of shit pure and simple. Brown's bringing him back into cabinet is a measure of his (brown's)contempt for the electorate, for truth and decency, and his inadequacy as political leader, to set beside his proven incompetence as finance manager.

Fergus Pickering

Tony Benn is very, very old. He is also stark, staring mad. That means he can be a National Treasure. I Enoch were still with us he would be the same. Mandelson doesn't qualify on either count. Besides, he is a creep.

Pete, Scotland

I think he will, in the short term, become almost an anti-hero.

Such are the times we live in.

However, in the longer term I think he will be seen as the sore that was the result of a long period of political illness.

Our society and political system now needs detox!

Hysteria

....meh!

mac

His lordship might qualify as a national treasure in the Dick Emery grande dame mode - unless his recent operation cured that peculiar gait of his.

Anyone noticed?

Ronnie

This is utterly grotesque.

Pete, Scotland

Correct me if I am wrong, he did win a Spectator, I assume this Spectator, award.

Osborne even handed it to him.

On that basis, surely, he can't be all that bad.

Can he?

Jon

Pete, Scotland

That award was just piece of (very clever) satire. It wasn't serious.

Wilfred

James, I already read precious few of your articles as it is.

Frank P

Rob Atkins

"No he won't go on Strictly Come dancing - they have voting there ! I do think he should be treated as a national treasure though - locked in a vault somewhere ..."

Indeed - embalmed, of course!

James

First the juvenile prank of the award which backfired, now this. Are you getting paid for this Mandelson puffery? And note I spelled that very carefully.

Jon

"That award was just piece of (very clever) satire. It wasn't serious."

Well, it was seriously not very clever, actually. So much so that it was downright stupid.

And I think that even Spectator
readers would understand that it was meeeeanttt to be 'clever satire', even though it handed a minor and silly victory to the oiliest little shit of the last century, which still obtains so far for this century.

james peterborough

mark my words mandelson has his sights on downing street theres noboby with a spine in his way

Nic

Mandelson master of the dark arts - perfect!