Jackie Ashley coins the telling phrase ‘Emergency Labour’ to describe the party post-Mandelson’s return. Looking at the reshuffle as a whole one is struck by how little ideological direction there is to it. It does not mark, whatever the headline appearances might suggest, a return to Blairism. Yes, Mandelson is back but at the same time Lord Adonis—the man who was doing more to push forward public service reform than anyone else in the government—has been moved out of his role. Indeed, Brown’s strategy appears to be to rely on the public believing that only he and his team of ‘serious people’ can see the country through the financial crisis. As Jackie Ashley notes, it is unclear if Gordon actually knows what the follow-up is to his dramatic recall of Mandelson.
Meanwhile, the press are gleefully stoking the tensions between Brown’s long marchers and Mandelson. Trevor Kavanagh recounts this conversation with Mandelson at the Labour conference a fortnight ago:
“I used to be Gordon’s ‘Ed’,” hissed Peter.
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