FUTILE, FINISHED AND F........KED

The latest racy instalment of Peter (Ker-ching) Mandelson's memoirs reveal the above slogan was dreamt up by him and the equally droll Alisdair Darling as the rest of the Party gritted its teeth and tried to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. As I said yesterday, Mandelson's spilling of very dirty linen in public is a gross disservice to the Party he claims to love. One can only hope the said slogan applies equally to Mandelson himself.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/12/mandelson-brown-labour-party-finished

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER

I'm waiting for the plumber. I face the grisly prospect of Christmas without hot water - thanks to the Arctic weather we have had in Hebden Bridge. What joy.
Snow is great on the Christmas cards. Not so great when you are at the mercy of the elements and hoping against hope for an overnight thaw.
Trivial stuff, really, compared to the perils of being elderly and vulnerable in this kind of weather. Which at least are currently being assuaged by the severe weather payments which will now go out automatically to people like my dad who has not been able to leave home for a week. Payments which, under the Tories, are likely to stop.
But it's seemingly way too much for Peter Mandelson, that little inch of clear red water which still separates Labour from the Tories.
Apparently, he is letting his displeasure known to the press that Gordon Brown refused to be nice enough to the bankers and still wants to fight an election on the differences, not the common ground, between us and the Tories. The differences let's face it which keep many of us in the Labour Party despite everything.
No coincidence, surely, amid this talk of renewed plots against Brown that uber-Blairite John Hutton should finally own up to being the Minister ( which we all knew anyway) who said Brown would be a "f***ing disaster" as Prime Minister.
Once again Miliband, it's rumoured, is preparing to position himself for a leadership contest in the New Year.
I've always found it amusing ( in a wry kind of way) that what's left of the left gets accused of undermining Labour's chances when members of the Government feel free to brief the lobby they are not happy with the PM.
But they are living on another planet if they think a cynical pre-election coup will do Labour any favours whatsoever.
Is it the threat , not of election disaster, but of a hung Parliament, which has suddenly resuscitated the anti-Brown camp? It could well be they would prefer Brown to go down in flames rather than hang on - with a majority dependant on a de-New Laboured Party shorn of many of its most right-wing MPs , including people like Hutton who is standing down. We shall see but one thing is sure - Mandelson is up to his old tricks and Brown should also start positioning himself - around Labour's core values .

PUTTING THINGS IN ORDER

The fact that Peter Mandelson is living it up in the lap of luxury with a member of the Rothschild family comes as no surprise does it. If you are "intensely relaxed" about the filthy rich then no doubt they are also your holiday companions of choice. Much in the great tradition of Ramsay MacDonald, who also liked consorting with the toffs.
With the summer's political hiatus in full flood, I'm in the process of helping organise a few things for September including a one-day Convention Of the Left in Brighton the day before the start of Labour Party Conference.
Thanks to the 45 or so people who turned up to support our fund-raising Labour Party curry night at the Trades Club. Proceeds will go to boost local election campaign funds and also pay for our Branch's affiliation to the LRC. Apologies to those left with rather pitiful portions after the serious troughers helped themselves rather too freely. Next time, comrades, portion control!
Meanwhile, I'm thoroughly enjoying cataloguing my books for sale and coming across mementoes of long past political events , people I don't know any more, and other stuff which is a harsh reminder of how short life is - and that we're just passing through.
Which is why I suppose that sorting things out and preparing to offload many of the volumes I have collected over the years seems like a positive thing to do. I don't need most of them.
The books I will resolutely hang onto are probably the tattiest, most-thumbed, and those given to me by friends and family.
Yesterday I came across a paperback copy of A Cellarful Of Noise - Brian Epstein's memoir about The Beatles.
The book is an irreplaceable memory of someone whose teenage devotion to the Fab Four shaped my childhood . Not many five-year-olds got to sit through A Hard Day's Night five times ( whether they liked it or not) or learn by heart the songs and words of Lennon and McCartney. Cellarful Of Noise is worth a lot of money. But it won't be up for sale. I treasure the book because my sister Geraldine died 10 years ago today at the age of 51 - and there are some things in life which are priceless. And as far as I'm concerned, most of them have very little to do with cash.

MANDY 4 LEADER - PLEASE GOD NO

I knew it. In the great tradition of Jacobean tragedy, and Shakespeare, here comes the Mandy show.

When Gordon Brown saved his bacon recently by signing a pact with the Prince Of Darkness, it was clear there would be a price to pay. In return for redemption, Brown had several months to turn things round but should it fail his Great Protector ( bit like trusting the Child Snatcher with your kids) would become Great Enemy and go for the job he's wanted all his life.

Mandelson's many Mates With Money are already talking him up as a leadership possibility and at the bookies he is apparently 16-1. A seat, so I read today, is already being lined up for him in Durham where former Whip Hilary Armstrong is standing down. Nice.

The truly terrifying thing is that with Purnell, Blears and others now out of the equation it could actually be that this latterday Iago will be plotting behind the scenes to take over .

It could just be silly season stuff by the papers but somehow there is a ring of of inevitability about the speculation. Who, after all, is briefing them? And, at a time when Labour MPs are shaking in their seats the utterly unthinkable could become perceived as some last-ditch solution. Let us hope not........

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 2

Many years ago Clare Short referred to "the people who live in the dark." These same people should be facing perpetual political oblivion following their repugnant coup to topple Gordon Brown.
Today's Mail On Sunday leaks an e-mail sent by Peter Mandelson to Derek Draper listing Gordon Brown's personal shortcomings. For once ( but what do I know) I don't believe Mandelson had anything to do with it. He may be many things but he is not a fool.
It's clear Mandelson thinks that Labour will do worse - not better- if Brown goes. He also is right to say that, if Brown were to be replaced by another unelected Leader, there would be irresistible pressure for a General Election. And that those results, in the current climate, would be far more catastrophic than they might be in 10 months' time. Of course, Mandelson also wants to ensure that what is left of the New Labour project also carries on. That is where he is wrong. But there is now a real opportunity for the left-of-centre MPs in the PLP to also put on irresistible pressure for change.It's Brown's - and Labour's - last chance to survive wipeout
The disgraceful primadonnas who comprise WAGS (Women Against Gordon) are apparently determined to carry on with their kami-kaze mission which would take most Labour MPs to hell in a handcart. I suggest they are immediately referred to the NEC and told they cannot stand again.The same goes for Purnell, who at least is no longer in the running in any future contest for the leadership
Tonight's Euro elections are likely to determine what happens in the next few days . But now could be an opportunity for political pressure on the Cabinet to finally listen to the groundswell of opinion within the Party for change. THAT is the only way we can avoid meltdown at the next General Election. And better we have that Election after the dust from this appalling mess has been allowed to settle. The results tonight may well overtake such a measured approach to the debacle. But I don't think the Party will ever forgive the ex Ministers who have behaved so selfishly and so arrogantly to the detriment of activists, councillors and the Labour MPs now even more likely to lose their seats as a result of their plotting. The Telegraph has details of the plot.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/5463596/Revealed-how-Cabinet-Blairites-plotted-to-topple-Brown.html

THE GREEN SLIME TENDENCY.......

Other bloggers have had a field-day over the Peter Mandelson slime incident. Much joshing about guacamole and variations on he-had-it-coming.

Actually, I have always taken the view that eggs, custard or whatever unguents one chooses to chuck are probably not the best way of getting your point across. But the reasons why people feel compelled to adopt such desperate tactics are really very simple. Increasingly, they feel utterly frustrated by the lack of democracy and the fact that the Government often rides roughshod over the silent majority. The Heathrow issue is a case in point. No vote in Parliament, no mandate for those whose homes, schools and hospitals would be bulldozed by the plans. No power to do anything much other than protest as loudly as possible in the hope one's voice will eventually be heard. The same is true over Royal Mail privatisation and the Welfare Reform Bill. At the rally I attended last week, people were visibly angry that a Labour adminstration should be targetting those most vulnerable and on benefits while failed bankers are bailed out with very few visible strings. So, while not a follower of the slime tendency myself, I do hope it gave Peter Mandelson some food for thought.

I'M MANDY, FLY ME......

The decision to bring back Peter Mandelson from the political hinterland was hailed by many as a political masterstroke. Several months on, it seems that Mandy's return has only led to more travails for the Government.
Mandelson's bid to part-privatise the Royal Mail has been met with howls of protest from MPs , trade unions and grassroots members . It breaks a Manifesto commitment to keep the service public and is opposed by 65 per cent of the public, according to the latest poll.
Then there is the furore over Mandelson's friendship with BAA boss Roland Rudd, and the deeply unpopular policy on the Heathrow third runway.
At today's National Policy Forum in Bristol, the PM was met by angry protestors. Yet he continues to plough on with a plan opposed by over 130 MPs, including several PPSs.
One wonders why the counsel of so many in the labour movement is studiously ignored at a time when Labour is facing serious difficulties.

MANDELSON GETS IT WRONG

Peter Mandelson ( see link below) is apparently telling workers who have gone on strike at the oil refineries that they must not hinder the process whereby migrant labour is being employed at their expense. The Norman Tebbitt approach. All they have to do is go and find a job in Europe - thanks to the "flexibility" of the market system
This approach is utterly misguided and dangerous. It's also fuelling the Daily Mail-led xenophobia we have already seen during the strike action and fails to address the basic problems whicb are
1. Employers can get away with offering lower rates of pay because the Working Directives and the legislation on the minimum wage is not enforced properly for casual and agency workers- despite intense lobbying by the TUC
2. The Government's lack of support for the unions means foreign workers are being wrongly demonised. ALL workers doing the same job should be paid the same rate of pay regardless of where they are from and should be encouraged to join the unions.There should be no undercutting
3. We should be blaming the bosses, not the people from Europe who are working for the lower rates of pay, for this crisis. Most importantly Gordon brown should NEVER have promised "British jobs for British workers." As I said at the time, it is a slogan which the BNP would support. And now it is coming back to haunt him.......

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/you-can-go-and-work-in-europe-mandelson-tells-strikers-1522527.html

MANDELSON MAKES HIS MARK....

It did not take long for Peter Mandelson to get cracking on his new New Labour agenda .Barely is the ink dry on the promised concessions in working practices to help parents ( a key component of Gordon Brown's Conference speech) than Mandelson is trying to undo the good work and saying the time is not appropriate.....and there is also the business of Royal Mail provatisation, which he is said to be in favour of.
It is ironic that at a time when the economic climarte and the general mood of the country is rather sober and austerely turning leftwards that the High Priest of neo-liberalism should be so utterly out of sync. Why should working parents be the ones to suffer because of capitalism's excesses.?

PETERS AND THEIR FRIENDS

Apparently, the PLP were clapping and cheering when Mandelson returned from exile last week. Well, some of them were. And I daresay the bubbly will be flowing for Peter's friends today as he is exalted to the House Of Lords.
In the great scheme of things, Mandelson's return, though unwelcome, is a minor irritant,
Have just returned from a trip to my bank (Lloyds TSB) where exchanged some banter with a cashier over possible nationalisation.She seemed to think it would be A Good Idea.
In times like these one needs to retain a sense of humour so last night I watched Peter Kay do a spoof of Pop Idol.This now world-famous Boltonian used to be an unassuming bloke who carried on working in his local cinema long after he started being popular on the Northern comedy circuit. Phoenix Nights was utterly brilliant. Made on a shoestring, its depiction of working-men's club culture was affectionately spot-on, and on occasion made me absolutely helpless with laughter. Not so last night's offering. There was the odd inspired moment but it was a bit of a vanity project which went on and on and on. And, without being overly PC, the running joke about a band with two disabled women wasn't actually that funny.And the "spoof" was so close to the real thing that it wasn't actually satirical. You also know you're in trouble when people like Paul McCartney start being drafted in as guest stars and Gary Barlow writes specially-commissioned tunes. Like Steve Coogan, Peter Kay has become a bit TOO famous. And the massive budget which last night's show had did not improve him one iota. There comes a poinmt where affectionate observation of Northern working-class life becomes , actually, taking the piss. And Peter Kay is close to stepping over that line.

PRINCE OF DARKNESS RETURNS......

I've been feeling pretty poorly and out of it for the past few days - so much so that I had no idea till just a few minutes ago that Peter Mandelson had returned to Government. Let's just say it has not improved my health one iota.

One can only echo John McDonnell's response ie to being "gobsmacked" at this appalling development . The appointment is also of course an utter slap in the face for all those soft lefties who have been rallying round to Brown's defence in recent weeks.

I include in that people like Jon Cruddas and of course the trade union leaders who have deluded themselves that Brownism is somehow different from Blairism. Tony Woodley 's justification for not demanding more radical policies is always that at least it's not the "Blair witch project." Today, according to the Independent, they were "too shocked " to comment.I bet they are. Becayse the Blair Witch project has risen from the dead , is back in the Government casting spells , and frankly we might as well bring back Blair because he never really went away. So if there is anyone out there still with hopes that Brown would herald a bew political era, prepare to bury them once and for all now. Mandy, and all he represents, is back in Government. UPDATE 6.07pm. Just seen Mandelson on news and Brown's justification for bringing him back. This is truly a last ditch throw of the dice for New Labour. Now I shall resume trying to get over vile virus......