Donald Macintyre has a fantastic essay on the Brown-Mandelson relationship in this week’s New Statesman. Two things in it stand out. First, Blair cautioned Alastair Campbell against going back into government but encouraged Mandelson to do so:
Second, when Mandelson and Brown were at their most detached, Brown still called Mandelson on the death of his mother:“Blair’s advice, similarly solicited by Alastair Campbell, whom Brown also offered more or less any job he wanted, was more equivocal. Campbell refused the job offer; he had built another life, which he enjoyed.”
“Even during the worst of the feud, the bond was never quite broken. When Mandelson’s mother, Mary, the daughter of Herbert Morrison and the most formative political influence of his life, died in 2006, during yet another peak of Brown-Mandelson hostilities, Brown telephoned Mandelson in Brussels to express his condolences. The conversation was awkward but the call was memorable enough for Mandelson to report it to his closest friends.
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