How much do I detest Peter Mandelson? Let me count the ways.A man whose best pal is Jeremy Epstein, who sucked up to Trump, who helped create ‘New Labour’ (blesses self huriedly) – anyone of those three are enough to make the belly heave and the mouth yell for a bucket.
However, we judge (or should judge) politicians, not on moral character but on their political skills.The British Labour party, like all other parties, needs people with political skills, not boy scouts.
Politics is a contact sport, not a virtue seminar. Mandelson operated at the sharpest end of power, where outcomes matter more than personal purity. He was hired to win, to manoeuvre, to make things happen inside brutal systems — not to model monastic virtue. Judging him primarily on morals misunderstands the job description. You don’t criticise a chess grandmaster for capturing pieces; that’s literally the point.
Besides, his effectiveness is measurable — his morality is not.
You can argue endlessly about Mandelson’s ethics, but his political impact is concrete: architect of New Labour’s media strategy, ruthless enforcer of party discipline, skilled operator in Brussels, Washington, and Whitehall. Policies passed, alliances held, elections won. Moral judgments tend to be subjective and retrospective; political skill shows up in results.
The system rewards skill, not sainthood.
If Mandelson seems morally flexible, it’s because the political ecosystem he mastered rewards exactly that trait. He didn’t invent spin, patronage, or strategic ambiguity — he just played them better than most. Singling him out risks confusing individual failing with systemic reality. If we only admired politicians who never bent a rule, we’d have a very short reading list.
In short: Mandelson wasn’t employed to be admired — he was employed to be effective. You don’t have to like him to acknowledge that, in political terms, he was exceptionally good at what he did.
So could we at least stop the garment-rending and the gnashing of teeth? …That’s better.
Mandelson is greedy, smarmy and self centred. How many politicians exhibit similar traits? He was a biased “secretary of state”, like we never saw one of those before. The whole point of him being thrown under the bus ( a bit like Andrew and Fergie and the other people implicated in the Epstein files) is to keep the spotlight off Trump. Trump who received TWO State visits to the UK from politicians who loathe him. Trump who was Epstein’s best buddy. Who, unlike Mandelson, likes young girls.
Very good jude