The Prince is playing politics
David Blackburn 1:57pm
Lord Mandelson argues in the Evening Standard that Labour’s legislative programme has the Tories running for cover. The forthcoming debate should prove this thesis to be nonsense. 7 minutes of largely rehashed policies, including all the old favourites – equality, the ‘smarter’ state and so forth, is unlikely to give Cameron sleepless nights.
I suspect Mandelson knows this as there is little substance to his argument. The article contains more insinuations than an episode of Midsomer Murders. Mandelson writes:
‘David Cameron seems to be getting a little rattled. Following his flustered performance at PMQs last week, he seems shocked and disconcerted to be facing a political fight again.’
‘Seems’ is a weak word to support the claim that the underdog government have the opposition on the run. Recently, Mandelson has been ubiquitous, in all his guises. When he can’t make a spin stick, you know Labour is in trouble.
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Frank P
November 18th, 2009 2:08pm Report this commentHe may not be able to make a spin stick but he knows how to make his spindle sticky.
peter
November 18th, 2009 2:08pm Report this commentOne of things I look forward to if the Tories win outright is the demise of the King of Lizards. No doubt he will be making as much of himself as he can in opposition but that's what it will be - opposition and that ain't power.
Vulture
November 18th, 2009 2:11pm Report this commentMandelslime is the Piers Gaveston de nos jours. Has there ever been a more odious, cynical, malevolent, Machiavellian, and generally repellent figure in British politics? No-one else comes close.
Chris lancashire
November 18th, 2009 2:19pm Report this commentWhat he meant was "I'd like Cameron to have been rattled, but as he wasn't I'll write it anyway"
The sooner this contemptable little man is out of British politics the better.
Geoff Miller
November 18th, 2009 2:29pm Report this commentWhy do all you media types grant Mandlesohn such status?
He's a crooked creep.
If he is the best that Marxist Labour can offer then it's time Labour was consigned to the toilet of history.
The Bellman
November 18th, 2009 2:30pm Report this commentHe wouldn't recognise the national interest if it bought him an all-expenses holiday in the South Seas with his partner.
He is the decaying carcass of New Labour, and every time he tries to do waspish mischief-making, he reinforces just how utterly the Labour party has again failed, as well as the extent to which stand-up comedy's gain has been the nation's loss.
JONNY
November 18th, 2009 2:33pm Report this commentHe's wasted.
What a killing he'd have made sitting in the middle of a:
'SOMEONE ISN'T USING AMPLEX'
tube poster. Beside 2 fellow travellers looking askance in disgust and trying to hold their breath.
He just dosn't get it. How repellent to average humanity he is.
Tiberius
November 18th, 2009 2:35pm Report this commentThank goodness we have finally got to the point where the public see this kind of crap as the equivalent of Comical Ali saying the Revolutionary Guard is pushing the enemy back, when you can see US tanks approaching behind him.
It's such a tragedy that the electorate ever bought into this detritus.
Uncle Albert
November 18th, 2009 2:36pm Report this comment"Labour’s legislative programme has the Tories running for cover"
Pure Comical Ali.
Blodwyn Quaddlestock
November 18th, 2009 2:41pm Report this commentCreative writing was his best thing at school and he's never lost the touch of never never land and gobbledegook.
The Lord High Everything Else's latest title of Minister of Information sadly does not clarify whether it is information, disinformation, malinformation or just junk.
Apologies to WS Gilbert for the use of his Mikadoean title for Pooh Bah!
Perhaps we should just say, 'Pooh Bah!' to Mandy?
toco
November 18th, 2009 2:44pm Report this commentEven with the assistance of the disgraced Damian McBride,Charlie Whelan,Derek Draper and Alistair Campbell, Mandelson will not be able to spin Labour out of the shambles Brown has created.Secretly he knows it but is going through the motions so as not to be blamed for the disaster which awaits the hapless Brown.Not long to go now.
Percy
November 18th, 2009 2:44pm Report this commentHooray! The Lord Peter non stories are back.
Taipei Exile
November 18th, 2009 2:56pm Report this commentAll hail the prince of darkness, praise ye praise.
Stop blowing smoke up this rankster's backside. He's a liar and a charlatan. David you are pathetic for joining in.
Geoff Miller
November 18th, 2009 3:10pm Report this commentTiberius - Great.
Mandlesohn "The Comical Ali" of the Labour Party.
I'll not forget that come the election.
If we stop taking them seriously they are doomed.
RMH
November 18th, 2009 3:11pm Report this commentThe Dark Lizard speaks with a forked tongue.
Peter From Maidstone
November 18th, 2009 3:43pm Report this commentWhy is the Spectator wasting money even mentioning this non-story.
Michael Booth
November 18th, 2009 3:57pm Report this commentWhy not appoint Mandelson as HM Ambassador to Saudi Arabia when Cameron gets in - that should curtail quite a few of his activities...
salieri
November 18th, 2009 4:27pm Report this commentA rather unkind slur, Vulture, on the hapless Piers Gaveston, who may well have had (or been on the receiving end of) a sticky spindle but does not seem actually to have dictated monarchical policy. Certainly there is no historical evidence of his receiving elocution lessons.
By contrast, Lord Voldermand was in his element on the Beeb this morning. When repeatedly and reasonably pressed by Evan Davies to explain why the government affected to pass laws enshrining its targets, without actually doing anything to achieve them, he eventually sighed and said that "with all love and respect, Evan" this required a lengthy answer which he would be pleased to give without interruption. He then proceeded to offer a lengthy and vacuous sermon which, while destroying all possibility of discussion, had nothing whatever to do with the question. An utterly shameless demonstration, in short, of how to bully, intimidate, patronise, mock, smother and evade the questioner all at the same time. I have come to dread the very sound of his oleaginous faux baritone.
Now, how about a similar fate for his master as the one Edward II received? There will be a long queue of volunteers eager to administer it.
Verity
November 18th, 2009 4:39pm Report this commentVulture, no. I'd say it was a tie with he equally odious Blair.
old fogey
November 18th, 2009 5:02pm Report this commentCan someone please help me; who was the BBC journalist who was threatened by Peter Mandelsohn . The threat arose because the Prime Mincer was displeased with the reporters slant on something and involved the issue being taken up with the Mincers new labour pals in the BBC hierarchy. The reporter was on air a few months ago referring to the matter with barely disguised anger, only to be cut short by the news reporter. And that was the last I have heard from this old target of the Mincer's vengefulnesss. Does anyone know what i'm referring to ?
Beer Moth
November 18th, 2009 5:03pm Report this commentWhy do we keep giving this fool the honour of our attention?
Holly ......
November 18th, 2009 7:16pm Report this commentBeer Moth
WE don't the bloody media do.
WE see him for the gutless gobshite he is, like the rest of them.
The media are so acustomed to bowing in Labour's presence they haven't got the gist of holding them to book.
The 'payback of the MASSIVE debt' has not yet hit their pay....but it will.
Mandelson is like that nasty creep in the public infomercial years ago, where the kids are playing in a river....we are the sensible children....he has NO POWER over them.
john miller
November 18th, 2009 9:15pm Report this commentHi, great lordy lord Mandy.
How's GM going? The Post Office? Oh, sorry, these are real things that are unaffected by spin.
You can't just talk a good fight on these can you? You have to DO something. But you're not very good at that are you?
So, have a cozy chat with your chum(p)s in the meedja and retreat into your comfort zone of Queen Bitch, where words make actions irrelevant.
2trueblue
November 18th, 2009 11:22pm Report this commentWhere did anyone get the idea that this creep had any relevance. He has done what he came back to do, keep everything quiet til the Lsibon treaty was ratified. Anything now is just air, so don't give him airtime.
Frank P
November 19th, 2009 1:22am Report this commentsalieri
I must ask - curiosity overcomes the shame of my own ignorance - "Vordermand" ???
Btw, I'm at the head of the queue, with a brazier on the go to keep the poker hot.
Gareth
November 19th, 2009 7:48am Report this commentMandels 'politics' was never quite as rampant as Gerald 'boot-licker' Kaufman - and he prefers to be the driver.
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