The heatwave no sooner ended than it was replaced by the Mandywave. Over the next few days, it may be hard to remember that there are other issues in British politics, including interventions by Tony Blair and Alan Milburn, plus a couple of important by-elections.
When Lord Mandelson was forced out, Keir Starmer seemed to relish the defenestration. Mandy has now had an unexpected revenge. His comments on Sir Stumbler’s methods of running a government were meant to be sealed in the archives, and it will be amusing to watch Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting squirm when they are asked whether they agree with his comments on their leader.
Bron Waugh observed that most of the people who ran the country would not pass a breathalyser after lunch
There is one aspect of the ex-ambassador’s record that has not yet been discussed: Mandelson and drink. I suspect that though he enjoyed high living, which no doubt included plenty of champagne, he was never very interested in wine. This was associated with a cultural change. Around 40 years ago, that great adornment of this magazine, Bron Waugh, observed that most of the people who ran the country would not have passed a breathalyser after lunch. That was certainly true during the Tory years. Just after the great victory in 1979, I arrived in White’s to lunch with the Premier Baron of England, a delightful character called Charles Mowbray (plus Segrave and Stourton). Charles asked me how many ministerial cars I had counted when I arrived. I had negligently failed to look. ‘I spotted six,’ he chortled. There is no evidence that the country suffered as a result.
What did Margaret Thatcher think? As she was married to Denis, she probably took drinking for granted. In earlier years, she confined herself to weak whisky and showed so little interest in wine that she had to be dissuaded from serving English wine at state banquets. These days, there are English bottles that could grace almost any table but not back then. After her defenestration and when poor old Peter Morrison was acting as her PPS, the strength increased. Once Peter had poured a couple of glasses, there was not much left in the bottle.
I do remember one amusing incident, in Tory Central Office as she was leaving in the small hours after her triumph in the 1983 election. Although she was probably the only sober person in the building, her chief whip in the Lords, Bertie Denham, was spectacularly unsober. Bertie had a considerable intellect and also wrote some more than competent detective stories. But Mrs Thatcher had never understood the House of Lords. When the government was defeated in a division despite Bertie’s best efforts, she was always cross. She assumed it must have happened because the men had not been working hard enough.
That night, while I was helping to cheer the PM on her way, I could hear Bertie behind, saying: ‘I musht tell the prime minister how marvellous she is.’ Somehow a gap never appeared, though I was not the only blockage. No doubt the obstructers, who thought ‘better not’, were being priggish.
Which brings us to Mandelson and the cultural change. In earlier years, Labour cabinet ministers enjoyed a good lunch and a good drink. Denis Healey could certainly pack it away, as could Tony Crosland, though that may not have helped his life expectancy. Roy Jenkins had a fine palate. But after 1997, everything changed. Lunches were monitored as likely sources of indiscretion. Ministers even took to going to the gym. Derry Irvine stuck to the old ways, which may have encouraged Tony Blair to sack him. Otherwise, new Labour meant new puritanism and Mandy was one of the enforcers. That adds irony to his degringolade.
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