It is one thing for those who opposed the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader to make their concerns and objections known and to argue for them within the Big Tent which is the Labour Party. It is quite another thing, when a new leader has just been elected with 60% of the vote (higher than Blair’s 57% in 1994), for a well-known Labour public figure to openly incite insurrection to have him promptly overthrown. When the party has spoken with such unprecedented decisiveness, such behaviour is coming close to traitorous. The Labour party has a rule, introduced by Blair himself, that anyone who brings the party into disrepute can be expelled. Many would think that Mandelson, who no doubt was deeply involved in the machinations behind the new rule designed to get rid of inconvenient left-wing activists, has now put himself in a position to be hoist on his own petard. Continue reading
Tagged with Peter Mandelson
The way forward for Labour (in response to Lord Mandelson)
We have the benefit – courtesy of the Guardian – of the advice offered by one of the Labour Party’s grandees as to the response that should be made to the calamity that has apparently now befallen the Party. That calamity is of course the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader. Lord Mandelson, we are told, has advised that the new leader, elected just three weeks ago, should not be immediately “forced out” but that the deposition should be delayed just a little while more people realise what a disastrous mistake has been made.
We are fortunate to have this advice, since it tells us so much about what has gone wrong with the Party. Here is the authentic voice of those who have been in charge of its fortunes for so long. Continue reading
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Poll: Blair & Mandelson lead the race to the bottom (in popularity of retired politicians)
Ten days ago, Tony Blair offered to do “what it takes to help Ed Miliband win general election“. Michael Meacher on this site said thanks but we’d be better off without it. Today, a poll carried out by YouGov for the Times confirmed that he’s right. Asked about a number of retired politicians, Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson proved to be more unpopular with voters than all others, providing clear evidence that they are both liabilities in Labour’s campaign. The poll asked:
Thinking about retired politicians playing a role in the current election, do you think getting support from the following politicians would be an asset or a liability for today’s politicians?”
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Chuka Umunna takes on the Blair mantle
Most newspapers and the BBC this morning carried a story based an in interview with Chuka Umunna in GQ (Gentlemen’s Quarterly) – “Brown ‘cuts’ denials hurt Labour’s credibility” as BBC News put it. As I write this, the issue of GQ is not yet out (as I embarrassingly discovered after wasting £2.50 on the September issue) so it was clearly widely trailed. The Guardian‘s spin is widely repeated:
Gordon Brown dealt a blow to Labour’s economic credibility by wrongly giving the impression in his final year as prime minister that the party failed to understand the importance of tackling Britain’s unprecedented peacetime budget deficit, the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, has suggested.
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Beware the coming together of Mandy and Balls
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. The coming together of Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls is portentous of something afoot. Even for Mandy to be asked to fundraise for Balls sends a chill across the Westminster bubble. In Mandy’s words:
Weren’t we the commanders-in-chief in the battle between the TBs and GBs for all that time? Didn’t we stand at opposite ends of the great New Labour divide?” Continue reading
