A Tangled Web

Crony M

 

Like the eternal odour of coproliths in an elephant house, Peter Mandelson hangs around this New Labour government like a bad smell.  After having to resign twice over dubious practices whilst in the Cabinet, his latest appointment as Britain's sole EU Commissioner on the recommendation of close chum, Tony Blair, only seeks to confirm that no acts of stomach-churning deceit are barriers to career glory when you have Phony Tony to rely on.



Let's look at the man's curriculum vitae.  He had to resign as Trade and Industry Secretary in 1998 after revelations of a secret loan from ministerial colleague, the millionaire Geoffrey Robinson, used to purchase a house in West London.  After the sanitisation of spin convinced Blair to resurrect his career, he was ensconced as Northern Ireland Secretary in 1999.   Here, his record is of continued appeasement of nationalist Ireland and the obliteration of the proud name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.  He had to quit office again in 2001 over a passport scandal involving the Hinduja brothers.  This Mandy, unlike the character title of Barry Manilow's 1975 hit, certainly did not 'come and give without taking' in these circumstances.  Anyone would think that being publicly disgraced on two separate occasions would be sufficient to lay to rest a person's career.  Not so in the Labour Party, ladies and gentlemen.



So now Mandy is off to Brussels to swell the growing number of EU sinecures.  His rabid pro-European stance, conjoined with his mastery of spin, will doubtless be used by Labour to brainwash a sceptical British electorate of the benefits of being members of a putative superstate.   Me thinks this time his pseudo-nepotistic rise to the corridors of European power will have exactly the opposite effect on people's view of Europe.