The Good, The Bad & The Ugly plus Peter Mandelson

I know who the chap and lady on the right are, but who's the two blokes lurking about in the left corner? Ah, now I see - it's Chief Justice Straw and First Secretary of State Peter Mandelson....nice robes guys!

Brown has the X-Factor...

In the latest GQ issue, Gordon Brown is spilling the beans to Piers Morgan. There we have it. We knew that Mandy was keen on Strictly Come Dancing, but it's now official that Brown is more of an X-Factor devotee. He told Morgan that "Cowell accused me of wavering in my support for The X Factor, but I haven't. I'm an X Factor fan, and Peter Mandelson looks after Strictly Come Dancing." I wouldn't wanna be at the next cabinet meeting when the two square up, Brown singing and Mandelson dancing...

Robert Harris' new book about Peter Mandelson. Kind of.

Robert Harris is a talented and prolific fiction writer and the proud author of Enigma, Archangel and the superb Fatherland (highly recommended). Harris is a former political journalist, who also must have a deep and extensive interest in history; all of his fictional work are set against a historic context, and often around the Second World War, or related areas and epochs.

In Lustrum, the second volume in Harris' Cicero trilogy, the protagonist is modelled on our very own Peter Mandelson; the book is even dedicated to "Peter". This is what the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins had to say about the comparison between the old Roman politician and Lord Mandelson:

"The most Mandelsonian moment for me is when Cicero (as he did in real life) buys a house on the Palatine, the most expensive quartier of the city, where politicians and aristocrats such as the famously rich Crassus and the famously posh Quintus Lutatius Catulus lived in beautiful houses with unrivalled views (as an estate agent might say) of the Forum.

The house cost Cicero 3.5m sesterces (a great deal of money), and he controversially borrowed 2m from Publius Cornelius Sulla, who was suspected of being part of the Catiline conspiracy, the very conspiracy that Cicero famously crushed. This was a decision – without wanting to spoil Harris' plot – that came back to bite Cicero in the bottom.

It's impossible not to be reminded of Mandelson's ill-fated loan from the millionaire Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson of £373,000 to buy a house in Notting Hill – which led to his disgrace and resignation from the Government in 1998. Mandelson shares one other characteristic with Cicero: he's a tenacious piece of work, and he's pretty good at coming back from disaster".

Read the full article here

Mandy and his Moustache

After the impressive performance of business secretary Peter Mandelson at Labour's Brighton conference, I thought these archive pictures of Mandy would be suitable - not only as a reminder of what a stylish chap he is, but also to highlight how much me and the minister have (had) in common...

Mr Mandelson meets Mr Bean

"Ah, the Prime Minister" Mr Bean said when he met Peter Mandelson. "Not Yet" said Mandy and pinched Mr Bean's left foot. Amazing.

Clarke v Mandelson

Tory peasants versus posh New Labour? Yeah I know, it doesn't make sense. Kenneth Clarke - Chancellor of the Exchequer under John Major's Conservative government in the mid 90's - has been promoted to Shadow Business Secretary by David Cameron. As such he will come face to face with Lord Mandelson, his Labour counterpart.

Prescott?

So far, so good. It's just that perhaps it should've been the other way around. Ken Clarke looks like John Prescott's inbred cousin while Mandelson resembles a long lost cousin of Prince Charles i.e. he looks well posh.

Prince Charles?

Now, I don't believe in stereotyping people (most of the time) but isn't this quite unlikely political duel oh so funny? They both challenge the notion of how we expect our politicians to look. Left is now right and right could very well be leftish. Tories look scruffy, while Labour politicians behave like posh nosh Lords in crushed strawberry pullovers. What has the world come to?

Clarke?

See the this Guardian page for further comparison:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/20/kenneth-clarke-peter-mandelson

Mandy - A Tory Surely....

Look at him. Peter Mandelson. British Business Minister in Brown's recent reshuffle. Third time lucky. Straight off the train from his EU office in Brussels. But can you see what's wrong with the picture? I don't mean to sterotype rich toffs (actually I do) but this man is surely a Tory. He's got the looks (to quote Roxette) that says: I'm not only rich, I'm handsome too. And judging from the combo of a striped shirt, dotted tie, red pullover (the colour red is key here, ask Chris Meyer) and a double breasted jacket, this man ain't Labour, that's for sure...