Has Mandelson given up on Brown?

Mitch

Why do people talk about mandelson like he is some kind of messiah eh? he was born to a rich family He was educated at Hendon County Grammar School. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Catherine's College, Oxford (1973-1976) and, in the late 1970s became director of the British Youth Council. As BYC director, he was a delegate in 1978 to the Soviet-organised World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, with Arthur Scargill.
he is also a fraud and a liar who had to resign twice in disgrace.
Stop inflating this fools importance.

Crooked crocodile

Mandelson is a toff who cannot bear to see Labour returning to class warfare, whilst Gordon Brown is desparate to cling on to power at any price and will happily turn back the clock to the 1970's. Mandelson must be absolutely livid to see everything he fought for in the 1990's unravel infront of his eyes.

Bill Kristol-Balls

I've got an election winning slogan for the government -

VOTE LABOUR OR MANDY'S GOING ON STRICTLY!!

Should be worth a few million votes at least.

Watt Tyler

while the spectator concerns itself with tittle-tattle, in the world from which they are trying to distract us, the copenhagen summit goes on, and Gordon Brown signs up to giving away 1.5 billion for causes that do not really exist, and David Cameron sliently acquiesces. Meanwhile, the Snow comes avenging the rumours of the premature, and whimpering death of Winter - hearing that it dripped away world wide into water in varies now gulleys that used to be glaciers, as Al Gore would have us believe. Raging blizzards extend into the Mid West earlier this year than ever before, and Europe is set to see a very cold spell this side of Christmas.

But still Man Made Global Warming is a fact, and the Spectator, to save the blushes of an inept Conservative party, knows that doing nothing will help it stay that way. What a sorry piece of garbage.

Kevyn Bodman

Mandelson has done his job by keeping Brown in power until the Lisbon Treaty was ratified throughout the EU.
And saving Cameron the need to implement his cast-iron guarantee on a referendum.
Their masters in Brussels will no longer care what happens in UK politics.
Because it doesn't matter any more.
Until we get out of the EU.

R king

Well he's got his peerage and free lunches etc for life so why cling to a sinking ship?

Pete Hoskin

Watt Tyler: I mentioned, and criticised, Brown's climate change fund a couple of weeks ago:

http://tinyurl.com/yeby74s

Moraymint

Nice to know our top political team is focused single-mindedly on fixing the perfect economic storm about to envelop the nation.

There are two reasons why a critical mass of the British public has yet to respond meaningfully to this latent crisis.

One is that too few people have yet felt the effects of the crisis in their pockets; that will come during 2010 and into 2011.

The second reason is ignorance. Most British citizens these days wouldn't know a budget deficit from bingo money if it appeared on their bank statements. Since ignorance is bliss, our political mafia is able to carry on like a bunch of student political activists whilst our economy heads for hell in a handcart.

I'm increasingly of the view that the transition from looming economic crisis to crisis itself and on to socio-economic drama will be precipitous and will probably occur before the end of 2010.

Any thought of recovery to annual GDP growth of 3.5% per Darling's PBR is nothing more than a brain fart. During 2010, the rising oil price will evolve into prohibitively expensive energy and suffocate recovery on each occasion it glimmers through the gloom.

Sadly, our political class has not the faintest knowledge of Peak Oil, still less do they factor it into their economic thinking and plans.

The next decade will be a turning point in mankind's history. Meantime, Mandelson, Brown, Balls, Harman, Cameron, Osborne et al play their petty political games.

Irene

Nothing on here about the £6billion MOD overspend.

Captain Coma

Senator Palpatine knows excactly what he's doing, I am sure.

Short the UK

Does Mr Mandelson put country before Mr Brown? Mr Brown is marching us to fiscal ruin, which any sane person can see, even the FT are starting to see the light, at long bl**dy last.

Mr Brown is a fiscal lunatic and to go down in history with this guy must be making some of the saner members of the Labour Party doubt themselves.

I say put your country before Gordon Brown, he is but an inkspot on our great history, don't let him bankrupt us and cause the economic downfall of UK plc. We are a good country that is being destroyed by a mentally unwell man called Gordon Brown.

We need a cross party consensus on spending cuts, targeted tax rises on consumers, tax cuts for small businesses, a sound money policy so that interest rates can remain low and the pound stable, the supporting and promoting of the City as a great bastion of capital formation, a positive message that Britain is great for doing business.

If we do not do the above this country will be economically finished and we will slide into global insignificance.

Don't look at the symptoms for the Bubble of Britain, look at the cause: too much easy money, a property bubble and too much government spending. Focus on the future not the past, UK plc is up against some incredible global competition for talent and capital, if we do seriously decline it will be because the British political class let down the public and the country.

sebastian

I always thought this was a marriage of convenience. Now it's one that's no longer convenient. Mandy with a passion for ermine. Brown with a lust for Brown. Mandy with a taste for fine menus. Brown with an appetite for dull tracts. No real chance. The ensemble doesn't match. Never did. An eyesore.
Besides, Mandy has what he wants now. House of Lords. Money. Connections. Status, of sorts. His deceits in the background. West Hartlepool even further behind him.
Brown will sink without rescue by Mandy's yachting chums. He's expendable ballast and is even beginning to look like it.
Brown, by forcing us into the EU against popular will, may not be forgiven. Neither will he earn praise for immigration; or multiculturalism; or thanks for tax robbery; or gain gratitude for the depletion of our armed forces; or enjoy applause for the education service. The man is all but a goner. Overboard.
Mandy, however, emancipated from popular mandate, will be sailing into the blue yonder, wealthy, erminely nautical and oblivious to a struggling, brine-soaked figure looking feverishly for a shore to beach on.
Those once joined at the hip by politics, sundered by the tides of fortune.

Frank P

R King

"Well he's got his peerage and free lunches etc for life so why cling to a sinking ship"

Particularly when he could be clinging to the bottom of a buoy!

(Apologies to those who read that the last time round, but it was too good an opportunity to miss for a quick reprise).

Paul M

Maybe Mandy had the same epiphany I had earlier this week: we've come to the point -- and I never thought I'd ever have such a thought -- where the UK would be a lot better off with Irishmen rather than Scots running its finances. I'm inclined to reel out the fantasy further, using all the old stereotypes in new ways: Poles could run Education better than it's managed currently; Germans would not be half as brutal in the collection of parking fines, license fees and bin penalties; Italians could probably do a better job at controlling Immigration than this bunch; and you could take your pick of the Portuguese, the Greeks or the Belgians to run the health service more competently and cheaply. Britain under Labour: the country where your wildest dreams can and do come true.

Chris lancashire

Stop trying to frighten us. Brown MUST lead Labour into the next election.

JohnAnt

"He may not be so keen to pick up the phone."
But surely someone has to retrieve it from wherever Gordon has chucked it?
I thought that *was* Mandy's job.

eeyore

Not much to look forward to these days in this vale of tears, but a spot of Victor's Justice after the Election would buck us all up no end. It must be possible to nail Brown and Mandelson on something - malfeasance in public office or whatever. How agreeable (except for them) if they were made to share a cell for the next five years!

Marcher Baron

Now Mandy has got Lisbon through, he's lost interest in El Gordo. Signing us up to the EU was all he was interested in - after all, as a Commissioner, he took the Oath of Allegiance to the EU. Britain means nothing to him.

Publius

@Moraymint. Well said. Spot on!

@Chris Lancashire. As I said the other day, this is the secret plan. Brown resigns "for health reasons" just before an election. A "safe pair of hands" caretaker steps in, and the election is held during the dead-cat bounce.

And as Moraymint says above, the masses have little idea of what's in store. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Publius

Mr Hoskin

"I mentioned, and criticised, Brown's climate change fund a couple of weeks ago"

The criticism bears repeating, especially after the latest 1.5 billion of our money that's being thrown into the black hole. This latest climate handout will make the CAP look like the model of financial probity.

Liz Brown

ah, but why would Brown worry about losing mandelbum - isn't Bliar poised to ride to the rescue? heaven help us!

Dennis Churchill

Kevyn Bodman
Yes, job completed.

Tankus

"Has Mandelson given up on Brown?"

haven't we all ?

Snowman

who or what is leaving the ship that's sinking?

Fox in a box

Moraymint,

Brain fart - fantastic...

I just has to explain to my wife why I was laughing out loud!!

Mark M

Oh Peter, you're so naive. Mandelson only agreed to join Brown when it looked as though he might be booted out before Lisbon was ratified. You really think Brown, a hater of anyone with money, would get along with Mandelson if there were not ulterior motives for each (Brown's case a few more months as PM, Mandelson got the time needed for Lisbon to get through).

Now Lisbon is through, Mandy doesn't care. No wonder people are saying March - Brown won't be able to stay in beyond that.

Alan Douglas

Mandelson gave up on Brown the day Klaus signed Lisbon.

Alan Douglas

Carl Sanderson

Marcher Baron (4.28 pm) is right. Neither Brown nor Lord Rumba has any allegiance to Britain. Both are Marxist, internationalist and collectivist in outlook. Brown hates what he sees as "Old Britain" and has set out to destroy it. Mandelson is a more complex case, combining as he does a sybaritic temperament with an "outsider's" chippiness.

Call me Infidel

Mandleson's only commitment is to furthering his own career. I have cleaned nicer stuff than Mandleson out of the bottom of ponds. He is beneath contempt.

Frugal Dougal

I imagine the reason Mandelson opposes Brown's class-war approach is that the good Lord would be one of the first against the wall.

Patricia Shaw

Mitch...

("Stop inflating this fool's importance")

Mandelson the Man!
Mitch the Fool!