These days, Peter Mandelson is the only Cabinet Minister who ever seems to do anything to spread a little joy and happiness about. If it weren’t for him this might be the most depressing government in living memory. Take, for instance, his reaction, to Georgie Osborne’s speech on the economy today:
“I have read George Osborne’s speech with incredulity. He must have made some mistake. I realise his speech was thrown together in haste but he or his researcher appear to have dropped in policies, paragraphs indeed almost whole pages of the speech I made on January 6.
Emphasis added. This is grand stuff but, my, poor old Biden! Even his pals can’t help but resurrect the ghosts of 1988*. But doesn’t this also mean that Mandy is conceding that Osborne will be Chancellor? One day…“If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I certainly feel sincerely flattered. However, the serious point is this: as his answer to questions revealed, there is a big difference between photocopying and understanding. I think he can recover from his performance today. After all, my friend Joe Biden deservedly became Vice-President of the United States.”
*If memory serves Biden was a little hard done by even then. That is, he’d frequently used the Kinnock quotes and always attributed them properly. Except for that one unfortunate time he forgot. But that was enough.
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