So Peter Mandelson, arch manipulator and shadowy Svengali has finally run out of road. This time his political career really has ended in disgrace. Throughout his decades in, and out, of politics, Mandelson was a divisive figure, but there was one part of his character that friends and foes agreed on: Mandy was a strategic genius. I beg to differ.
Mandelson was more like a dull and unimpressive civil servant who was almost laughably overrated
In 1997, I was working in a big ad agency and on Labour’s election campaign. I wrote a few of their ads and some of their party political broadcasts and had occasional dealings with Mandelson. What struck me most is that, far from being a formidable spin doctor, he was more like a dull and unimpressive civil servant who was almost laughably overrated. However, because those around him were even duller, he was regarded as a super-smart electoral sage who clearly believed his own hype.
Although Mandelson was one of the senior Labour figures who signed off the work, he’s been given way too much credit for ‘masterminding’ the party’s electoral victory. The clever strategies and winning ideas came mostly from ad men. As they did when Saatchi & Saatchi powered Margaret Thatcher to No. 10 in 1979, and returned her there in 1983.
The landslide election of 1997 was no different. Tony Blair was whooshed into Downing Street, not by Mandelson’s genius, but by some highly intelligent and original strategists. Having created enormous commercial success for clients like Volkswagen, Barclaycard and Budweiser, they did exactly the same for the Labour party.
I can’t claim to be one of them. The strategy was set and I just had to write some words that followed the formula. If Mandelson had a strength, it was in keeping everything ‘on message’. But isn’t that just so ‘civil service’? Implementing and obeying rules. Pity it seems that he wasn’t quite so scrupulous about obeying them in his private life.
In common with so many on the faux-left, Mandelson’s weakness was his obsession with other people’s money and the almost moral entitlement he appears to have felt at getting a share of it. Money was essentially the reason for his two resignations from Tony Blair’s government, and he enjoyed socialising on yachts and rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. But in doing so Mandelson rather tragically traded whatever he could so he could feel part of the international jet set; he seemed desperate to bury his inner nerd, that inner Labour councillor for the London Borough of Lambeth.
Mandelson isn’t, and never was, a masterful politician; the image of the fixer who seemed to revel in his ‘Prince of Darkness’ nickname is a myth. As his toadying messages to Jeffrey Epstein demonstrate, he was just a man in thrall to his own greed, insecurity and carefully contrived Machiavellian image. His poor judgment has been exposed yet again with the squalid revelations about his relationship with the paedophile financier. To believe anyone who keeps getting caught with his trousers off (this time literally) has any measure of political acuity is a joke.
Like Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer, Mandelson would have struggled to function outside of the public sector or political bubble, among genuinely smart and impressive people.
Tony Blair is a rare example of a Labour politician who would have done, which is why he triumphed in three elections. As for Mandelson, given that he is said by some to be a ‘genius’, it’s interesting that he was never even considered as party leader. Possibly that’s because his unedifying combination of being both dull and slippery would never have appealed to voters.
And surely such a ‘brilliant operator’ would have made a greater success of his ministerial career? His lack of substance is perfectly captured by his first cabinet role – ‘Minister Without Portfolio’. It’s almost as though he couldn’t be trusted to run a real department.
When he eventually was, he was given the Department of Trade and Industry where he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory. Mandelson was the minister who strongly advocated for the Post Office to adopt the Horizon IT system which ruined the lives of so many people.
When Mo Mowlam was relieved of her duties as Northern Ireland Secretary because of ongoing health issues, Mandelson – who’d been out in the ministerial cold for some time – was the surprise choice to replace her. But even then, Jonathan Powell was the real architect behind the government’s policy.
Since then, when it comes to Mandelson, it’s been disaster after disaster: each time he has returned to frontline politics, it has ended in tears. Why? Because, at heart, Mandelson is just a political plodder who thought he could accrue great wealth without the courage or talent to chance his arm in the real world.
More than anything else, this disconnect between ability and ambition is the reason why, if it transpires that Jeffrey Epstein paid him for access to government information, the plodder will soon be getting a visit from The Plod.
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