Mandelson's strategies

luke

If the media do start to treat the tories as the clear favourites and scrutinise them as a govt in waiting, it may be a bit uncomfortable for the tories, but it will lead to a better incoming government after the next election.

Vulture

Poor dear! With that crumpled face and hangdog expression, he's beginning to look terribly old and tired. He needs a real rest. A very long one.

Nicholas

Not so much the "Underdogs" as the "Flounders".

CS

Come off it, James, who the Hell is going to fall for the line that the government that's been in power for 12 years is the underdog?

Being catastrophically unpopular as a result of buggering up the country and abusing power for 12 years is not quite the same thing as being the plucky underdog.

Again and again Mandy's shenanigans get analysed as cunning genius by people who we suppose ought to know better. When is one of you going to step back, look at the time since he returned to government, twig that Labour's slide into the abyss hasn't slowed one iota (or do I mean jot?) and conclude that everything with Mandy is a case of the emperor's new clothes?

David Ossitt

I loath the wretch; but was delighted with his performance, it showed to the world, his supercilious curled lip I am so very important poisonous self.

Every time he speaks he losses more and more labour voters.

Barman at The Red Lion, Whitehall

What on earth has happened to Robison? - has he had some kind of 'Damascene Moment' and actually transformed into a real journalist, rather than a cheerleader for the present Administration?

I never thought I'd see the day...

Tim B

I suspect he might be one of the few in the Labour party still thinking at all!

Miles O'Toole

"Say what you like about Mandelson"

Alright, he's a putrid turd, cunning but with no morals whatsoever.

TrevorsDen

Mandelson is in fact echoing the Queen of Hearts and putting his own bespoke meaning on words. Mandelson, Brown and Labour are living out their existence in a parallel universe to the rest of us.

Its self evident that there is no tory' glee' and saying so does not make it true.

What they say has no meaning to any of us living in the real world. It will surely be hard to disguise that fact in an election.

Chris lancashire

I did watch the interview and (yes, I'm biased) he came across as untrustworthy, calculating and what an ego! All qualities bound to alienate the electorate.

And I agree, the revised dividing lines were evident but I also think the UK electorate are about to forget the last few years and listen to Mandelson's "strategy".

John Law

Thinking strategically is what natziz do. Hitler was doing it all the time. Fortunately he was totally useless at it.

Percy

I think he was pretty poor, it amazes me that you lot in the media are still so frightened of him.

EC

Much as I detest New Labour and all their works I reckon that if they had the backbone to ditch Brown then Peter Mandelson would wipe the floor with Dave and George at the next election.

Of course the spineless shower will do nothing and Dave probably will stumble into Number 10. Does anybody have a clue what he is going to do when he does?

If Blair is thwarted in his Euro ambition then expect him back too!

Carly

How can Labour be the underdog when the Tories have to be 10% ahead just to get a slight majority. This is a joke!

Verity

Mandelson's face is malign and corrupt.

Stepney

Anyone remember when Public Service was about serving your country and not your party?

Just wondered...

Steve.W

Mandelson “wants to frame the next election as a choice between Labour and the Tories”.

Gosh yes, that's clever, a 'masterstroke' in fact. I wish I'd thought of that.

No wonder the nation is so in awe of Lord Peter.

tevorsden

Percy - you are correct. Mandelson just talked gibberish. The notion that anyone in the country can take him seriously is risible.

Tom Pride

I saw it. Laughed. The same old sanctimonious, self-regarding, self-satisfied, self-justified, self-evident inherent moral superiority.

Tories slash and burn in recession, Labour save 500,000 undefined jobs – “I can’t answer detailed questions. . ”; Tories cut, Labour rebalance, fiscal re-adjustment, constraints, pressures, tough / hard choices, slower or postponed implementation or cannot do at all; Tories boast with undisguised glee at savage cuts, Labour care.

The glorious self-righteousness – Tories bad, Labour good. It’s all they’ve got left and didn’t Mandelson cling to it like a dog to a comfort blanket.

Who cares about the truth? So what about outcomes? Same old Brown, same old lies. But, the lies, the omissions, the distortions, the obfuscations do not wash anymore. If the coming election is about straight talking and honesty then Brown and Mandelson are sunk. They just don’t do it. They can’t as they must fly in the face of the facts.

Dan

The Tories should be thanking Mandelson to high heaven. If it wasn't for him, Labour would have ditched Brown by now and, under Johnson, the Conservative's poll lead would be halved. Mandelson's decision to prop up Brown will lead to a rout for Labour if it continues until the election. However, I can't believe Mandelson is that stupid - he must have something up his sleeve. My guess is that Miliband was all set to join Purnell, but Mandelson bought him off with the promise that Brown will go in the autumn and an election would not therefore have to be held until the following spring - and the Lisbon Treaty will have been ratified by then.

golfwidow

I agree with Barman @ 4.38. I've watched Robinson on Newsnight for the past two nights and I think he's found his niche. He's a far better interviewer than he is a commentator. This Mandelson was a far cry from the one who wiped the floor with Andrew Marr a few weeks ago and he looked positively uncomfortable on more than one occasion.

Publius

Looks like I'm being censored again. Was it because I used the new term-du-jour -- Mr Cameron's "T" word"?

Rob

If Labour are the "insurgents", can we ask the army to "remove" them?

Pat Morgan

I like the way Mandelson has "offered up" Brown for an election interview. That should be fun. Dave won't have to do anything - just make Brown angry.

I can't think anyone will be taken in by Mandelson - we've heard it all before. But Mandelson is so cunning - I can't help but wonder why he is "propping up" a loser.

We probably need a psychiatrist to shed light on that one.

I think Mandelson has his finger in so many pies, he is bound to come a "cropper" soon and when Mandelson does "mess up" he tends to do it BIG TIME.

Tom FD

It's just completely bizarre to see someone describe the party of government as "the underdogs".

EC

Carly: "How can Labour be the underdog when the Tories have to be 10% ahead just to get a slight majority"

Such is the gerrymandered bias in the system that in the 2005 general election, in England, it took on average about 41,800 votes to elect a Tory MP and only 28,100 to elect a Labour MP. If the Labour vote doesn't turn out on election day then the Tories wont have a problem.

Don't underestimate Peter Mandelson and don't over-estimate Dave and George - who are quite capable of cocking it all up at the last minute.

May the farce be with you!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/vote2005/html/england.stm

Fox in a box

Just watched it and I think it raises a serious issue...

do you think he dyes his hair?

(Mandy not Toenails that is)

Jeremy

'Mandelson also kept stressing that Labour were “the underdogs”, “the insurgents”.'

I'm glad you spotted and reported both of those terms, James. But I think the reason for their use is more Freudian than you allow. They have been thought up beforehand and deliberately placed into Mandelson's conversation in order to suggest certain images and feelings to the audience. For example, describing Labour as "the underdogs" is intended to appeal to the traditional British sympathy for (you guessed it) "the underdog" - for the one who happens to be getting the worst end of the stick at the current time. Mandelson wishes to suggest that this "underdog" is Labour - "poor little Labour", if you like. Whereas in fact it is Labour which has been in government and therefore both holding and wielding the stick for the past twelve years. And it is the rest of us who have been suffering at "the wrong end" of it. So his use of the term was both extremely manipulative and, I would say, false. The we-are-the-party-of-"the insurgents" line is intended to re-kindle the aura of fake glamour which used to surround Labour as somehow being the "anti-establishment" party. This is quite simply mendacious nonsense. Quite apart from the fact that Labour has been the party of government for the past decade and more, Labour's culture - that is to say, left-wing culture - has been the "establishment" culture in this country for at least the past forty years. Which makes Mandelson's attempt to present the Labour party as somehow being the "insurgents" party - as opposed to the "establishment" party - quite laughable. Labour - for the reasons already stated - is the party of the establishment. So both of the terms that Lord Mandelson employed were false, but both were intended to put the suggestions - outlined above - into peoples' minds (and therebye get them to vote Labour all over again).

He is a consummate propagandist for his party and he is Labour's smoothest operator by far. But he remains just those things: a propagandist and an operator. He is not, I think, a very great man.

Alison

If you disregard the style of delivery, which is soft and calm, the words he uses around the 'cuts' part of the interview sound exactly the same as Brown's. I now suspect that Mandelson has been providing those words to Brown to a far greater extent than we had supposed.

jon dee

Peter Mandelson bestrides the Labour government like a political colossus as his superhero status gains him power and publicity, undreamed of in an unelected politician.

He is surely final proof that elections are no longer needed to gain the ultimate power in a so-called democracy

He even boasts a second job as puppet-master to former prime minister Brown, now reduced to a bit part somewhere in Cumbria and talking through flunkies in Downing Street.

Who needs televised debates when we have Supermandy?

Be aware, this is New Labour reborn and things can only get better if you are daft enough to believe it.

JohnAnt

Mandelson somehow manages to communicate instinctively his quintessential malign and perfidious nature, even to Joe Couch-potato Public.
What a gift for the Tories.

Tiberius

Mandy's just having some fun with all this double speak. He knows the jackal has had its day.

Oscar

Treversden - you are right, there is no sign of Tory 'glee' or Tory 'smugness'. It is a Labour spun fiction and the Speccie shouldn't spread it. And you can't play the underdog ticket when you've been in power for 12 years. It's precisely because of all these distortions and deceits that the public loathe them. Straight talking is what is needed, but Mandy and Brown are the last men on earth to do that.

Alan Douglas

Dan says "I can't believe Mandelson is that stupid - he must have something up his sleeve."

In reply "Quite right. Nothing up my sleeve at all dear boy. I have been quite openly working to remove the Tory threat to the Lisbon Treaty, and to achieve higher political office than my illustrious grandfather."

"And part of this plan is to have the entire media guessing just what is or isn't 'up my sleeve'.

"Nothing at all dear boy, nothing at all ...."

PM (soon to be by name as well as nature)

Verity

Oscar - straight talking is indeed needed, and you are not going to get it from David Cameron, One Worlder, 'climate changer', Europhile.

His message of "I have a clever plan" failed from the first as the voters saw his plan was destructive to our country. (If we even have a country any more. OK. Destructive to our "European region".)

The man's toxic. Not as toxic as Wing Commander Tony Blair in the clipped accent fight against Britain, but a vote for Cameron is a vote for suicide. Or "assisted death" as they now call murder under the Gramscis.

Nicholas

Good post Jeremy. Spot on!

Labour have for many years used scripted code or trigger words intended to be lodged in the mind. And the media and public have for many years been fooled by them.

Absolutely correct what you write about the establishment too. The establishment in this country is as Left as it comes, but pretends it is still struggling against invisible, Dickensian, reactionary forces of the past that are somehow responsible for all our ills. The whole Labour party history is in no way to blame for any of the problems that now beset us. It is all someone else's fault - always. Classic communist totalitarian methodology.

In a nutshell, manipulative, lying conmen - and wimmin.

Roger

Makes my skin creep, my wife's skin creep and my Mother in Law cannot watch him without negative comment. Nothing to do with his sexual persona, he just exudes nastiness. The man will not win any votes.

Pete

Everytime Brown or Mandelson go on TV thats another 1000 votes for the Tories.
Brown avoided Norwich for fear of boosting the Tory vote. His own MP's want hime outed because of his damage to the Labour Vote.
Most Tories will like to keep him in power until the next GE - result landslide Tory victory and Labour condemmed to third place.

The Bellman

On the same day that Cameron is being chided for saying 'tw6t' on radio, the erstwhile First Secretary of State is describing the government, apparently approvingly, as 'insurgents'. For one so allegedly brilliant at media management (read 'bullying lazy hacks') and presentation (read 'lying'), to use such language at a time when British forces are engaged in a vicious counter-insurgency in which there is considerably more at stake than the vanity of two politicians, is tin-eared, contemptible and self-importance.

Of course, Mandelson has form in such matters, for example the interview with Irish TV in 2000 when he described the Brigade of Guards as 'chinless wonders'. But this pushes the bounds of unfortunate mis-speaking somewhat further. It also suggests very strongly that he has no interest in, still less understanding of, the nature of insurgencies. He probably thinks in terms of organising sit-ins in the library to protest against school uniforms.

I agree with Jeremy that it's Freudian, but not altogether inappropriate: it's another slip of the mask concealing the nasty Gramscian instincts of this collection of moral bankrupts and self-obsessed privateers. Along with the rest of the over-promoted JCR entertainments secretaries like Balls and the Milibands, he is happiest when framing 'debate' in terms of undermining order. It's a shame that he and his cohort were allowed to progress from student exploits like renaming the buttery 'the Nelson Mandela Bar' to helping destroy a country.

But it's not like we weren't warned.

Publius

Bravo Bellman. You sum up this band of second-raters beautifully.

...And as I said before, I wish vain old bitches would stop dyeing their hair and start behaving more like statesmen than media whores.

EC

The next election is by no means won. In addition to the gerrymandered bias toward Labour one must also consider the massive expansion of the public and third sectors under New Labour. These people are going to vote for the party most likely to keep them on the payroll!

Nicholas

Another spot on post. Well done The Bellman.

Now, if only the media could get their thick heads around the fact that they are being used by the Left and characterise New Labour's junta in the astute terms of Jeremy and The Bellman we just might be able to get our country back.

Frank P

Mandelson:

Guile with a smile.
A flake on the make.
A Machiavelli manqué.
Oil incarnate.

James
" ...say what you like about Mandelson ..."

apparently not: my comment on this thread in the small wee hours never saw the light of day. You're so protective, poppet!

EyeSee

Doesn't sound strategic to me, sounds like a little boy having a tantrum. But then Mandelson always does, it is only media types who are too intesively involved in 'analysing' politics who seem to think he has anything important to say. Ever. Clearly any 'glee' that anyone feels, let alone the Tories over spending cuts is only that New Labour have been caught lying. Again. Another self inflicted wound.

EC

Frank P,

Good to know that you are still with us.

Missing comments:
Sometimes the Spectavoid really is to blame but sometimes I think that unwritten criteria come into play.

What to you or I might be acerbic, pithy, hilarious un-pc observations or gallows humour might engender a po-faced reaction in others. But they are of another generation. While you were draining the swamp they hadn't been born.

I came to the Specator blogs following Melanie Phillips from her own website. I enjoy reading her detailed comments and analysis and tend to agree with most of them.

Returning to the subject of this thread and in support your unpublished comment perhaps should say for the record, "I'm four-square behind Frank P's homosexual stance."

Ellia James

Mandelson makes me sick to my stomach. Just get him out of my sight and Broon and all the Labour losers. As for Bliar I hope the War Crimes Tribunal beckons. I am sure Cameron will not be perfect but they cannot damage the country in the way this bunch of crazed neo Marxists have. Just get rid of them.

Verity

EC - How frightfully clever! I'll bet the boys always found it a comfort that you were right behind them.

RobC

Having bitten virtually every taxpayer on the arse for the last 12 years "the rabid dog that is Labour" is a more apposite description than under dog and we all have the scars to prove it!

EC

Touché Verity. I suppose I'll just have to take that one on the chin!

EC

Verity, Carry On Up The Khyber is one of my favourite films. Joan Sims was brilliant in that one. Unfortunately my initial reply appears to have been cut, which is supporting evidence for FP's and my point. Additionally, Barry Cryer's claim that 'innuendo' is the Italian word for 'suppository' might also not be valid on the Speccie blogs.

Verity

EC - Won't wash. They don't "cut" comments on The Speccie. No one ponders thoughtfully over your aperçus with a blue pencil. It either gets through as written or binned.