Mandelson, Friend or Foe?
Even by the standards of Bob Monkhouse Syndrome by Proxy, whereby the most reviled national characters inevitably come into vogue if they hang around long enough, the transformation of Peter Mandelson from rank underdog to national superman is remarkable.
Those who not long ago would rail about him in the least elegant of language now nod sagely and say that he is the only minister they trust on the economy, in much the same way they talk of Kenneth Clarke and Vince Cable. The man is a force of nature.
Having swept back from hobnobbing with the Rothschilds in Corfu to take charge of the country, the Business Secretary has certainly been out to woo the City. Reportedly dismayed by what he regards as Alistair Darling’s defeatist approach to European legislation that could “destroy the multibillion pound private equity and hedge fund industry”, he has promised to redouble efforts to fight off Brussels.
Mandelson’s championing of financiers is hardly surprising given his love of any well-connected circle where money, glamour and power mix. He is deemed one of the few senior Labour people with who the City identifies. Indeed, the eclectic group comprising “Peter’s Friends” includes a host of big business names: including former BP chief Lord Browne, entrepreneur Jamie Palumbo, and Wall Street Journal boss, Les Hinton. The powerful family behind the Indian Tata Group, owners of Jaguar Land Rover, are also close friends.
Much good it did them. How can Mandelson style himself a friend of business when he was prepared to jeopardise thousands of jobs at Jaguar Land Rover by refusing to all the Government to stand as guarantor to enable the company to secure funding. The episode reveals Mandelson’s feet of clay. He talks of a new industrial policy to help rebuild our economy but has produced nothing substantive to back it.
And it will take a genius even more steeped in the dark arts than Mandelson to persuade a sceptical public that the Government’s handling of the MD Rover affair was anything less than an unmitigated disaster. Motor industry leaders, it is true, are disillusioned, but Mandelson was right to play hard ball with Jaguar – the Government cannot bail out every private company that gets into difficulties.
Meanwhile, his reputation for delivering is growing in other sectors: tourism bosses are desperate to ditch the useless Department for Culture, Media and Sport to move to his empire. For better or worse, business leaders can’t get enough of Lord M.