Mandelson and Miliband kick open the hornets’ nest

Oh joy, Labour are at war again.  The animosities which have largely been kept in check since the election are now piercing through to the surface again – and it’s all thanks to Peter Mandelson’s memoirs.  After the ennobled one’s insights about Gordon and Tony in the Times yesterday, Charlie Whelan is shooting back from the pages of the Sunday Telegraph.  And, elsewhere, Brown is said to have told friends that “this is going to be a very difficult time for me.”  Yep, it’s just like the glory days of last summer.

Amid all this, there’s a sense that Mandelson and David Miliband have coordinated their efforts to trash Brown and, by extension, his “advisers”.  At the very least, it’s a grim and convenient coincidence that Miliband should make that Keir Hardie lecture on the same day that the promotional drive for the Dark Lord’s book kicks off in earnest.