He's back! Peter Mandelson is back in the Cabinet. You can either view that as Gordon Brown's desperation or his realisation that he needs heavyweight figures in his government.
Let's face it, with everything stacked against him, what can he lose?
The problem is, I'm sick of hearing about 1994, and who hates who. We know that Brown was pissed off that Mandelson backed Blair for the party leadership in 1994, and that he never forgave him. Do we need to hear abou this endless feud until 2010? The media have long been obsessed with the personality clashes which have been documented in memoirs/diaries frm Cherie Blair and Allistair Campbell.At a time when we need serious policies to deal with the financial crisis, the last thing we need is the sideshow that Mandelson's return will bring.
This is a man who brings drama, hatred and contraversy with him with whereever he goes. He left the Cabinet twice under a cloud.There is no in between with Mandelson.To some, he was a key moderniser who made Labour electable. To others, he was a master of spin amd media manipulation. To supporters of Old Labour, he was the man who made the Labour Party into a product to be sold with Tony Blair as the key salesman.
The next eighteen months are going to be very interesting. Only time will tell if Gordon Brwon made the right decision.
