Politics | 11 October 2008

Gordon Brown’s critics are confused. For months they have been accusing him of dithering, of timidity, of being unable to make the bold moves that are needed if his government is to get a grip on the unfolding problems in the financial sector and, now, in the economy as a whole.

Now that he has shown more than a bit of both decisiveness and courage by bringing Peter Mandelson back from what most fair-minded people recognise is a credible stint as European trade commissioner, the critics have shifted gears. Mandelson is not the man to help craft policies with which to fight the emerging economic crisis because… well, because he is Peter Mandelson. Twice forced to resign ministerial positions, the first time for financial indiscretions related to his taste for the high life, the second because Tony Blair was too nervous to wait for the exoneration that came after a careful investigation.

Anyone who thought that by accepting the Brussels appointment Mandelson had forever given up the hope of returning to a Cabinet-level appointment didn’t know their man. On the night of one of Blair’s often botched reshuffles, the Prime Minister was being pressed by Mandelson to give him an opportunity then to say what he says now — ‘third time lucky’. Blair hesitated before accepting the sound advice of his inner circle, and telling Mandelson the political fall-out would be devastating. Better, said Blair, to hie off to Brussels where the work would be intellectually interesting, the lifestyle of an EU commissioner agreeable, and where success might provide a path back to a Cabinet job in Britain. And so it has proved.

I would be the last to argue that Mandelson is a flawless exemplar of the selfless public servant, although there is no doubt that lucrative directorships would have been his for the asking.