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5 comments from readers

Newmania
03 October 2008 at 16:46

This is going to be a lot of fun.

IE- Not Brown. he cooked this up when he was under attack and 20% behind . Its a complete own goal and a dreadful embarassment now

Nilsey105
03 October 2008 at 21:01

Newmania

"IE- Not Brown. he cooked this up when he was under attack and 20% behind "

looks more like a toss of a coin to me. Heads hes in tails hes out.

Or was it dip dip dip .... you are it ?

Roland Baker
05 October 2008 at 11:34

Look out particularly for "off brief" speeches designed to undermine rivals and possible fall out from Fritz Harald Wenig. Peter Mandelson needs all the Chinese candles he can get. He'll be burning them at both ends.

Is this the man to rescue our morally and financially bankrupt nation using the experience of his failure to complete the Doha round? No it is not.

Having failed to make Doha his legacy before leaving the EU, Mandelson is reduced to the political equivalent of pushing supermarket trolleys in a shop with nothing to sell and whose customers have nothing to pay for it in any case. The press should not offer him the oxygen of publicity.

George Eaton
06 October 2008 at 00:48

"Bringing him back again was bound to end in tears. Can you believe, then, that some hacks are suggesting the twice-disgraced ex-minister will make a third comeback?"

That was Charlie Whelan writing in the NS in 2004 (http://www.newstatesman.com/200407260034) and lambasting Blair for sticking by Mandelson. I'd pay to see his incredulous face after Mandelson's appointment by Brown.

One of the most interesting aspects of this story is that Brown has put himself on the other side of a key political decision to many of his traditional fixers in the unions, the press and the cabinet.

Kevin Maguire's negative reaction is also worthy of note (http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/maguire/2008/10/peter-mandelson-ba...).

Brown has also undoubtedly put Ed Balls's and Douglas Alexander's noses out of joint. The latter was already somewhat miffed after taking the rap for the election that never was and the rumours that Mandelson is set to usurp him as election coordinator risk further alienation.

Above all this demonstrates that Brown retains the capacity to surprise (previously demonstrated by BoE independence and his final budget).

Whether this appointment is a one-week wonder that will backfire, as the abolition of the 10p tax band did, remains to be seen.

But Mandelson's declaration in his Observer interview that, "it could work-not just with him, but with those closest to him, with whom I've had a difficult relationship in the past as well", has a whiff of the Panglossian to me and I won't be surprised if the screaming matches start again soon.

Paul Lettan
08 October 2008 at 07:18

The return of both Mandleson and Campbell, who are consumate professionals at the top of their game, can only strengthen the Labour party machine in the rum up to the election. The Lib Dems and Conservatives will have to raise their game several notches. We should sit back and enjoy the show.