The noble art of politics

10:34am Wednesday 29th October 2008

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PETER (Lord) Mandelson could be heaven-sent for newspapers. He breeds meaty copy. Not one, but two, Cabinet resignations foreshadowed a sensational comeback. Before the shockwaves have subsided he is embroiled in a row about possible favours. It draws us into a supposedly glamorous world of £80m yachts and luxury villas in Corfu.

Is anything improper at its heart? Pish.

Lord Mandelson is free to have friends, rich or poor, and accept their hospitality.

But the reason we are fascinated by his social tete-a-tetes with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska is that we see this as a window on how our great democracies work. Of course, the ballot box comes into it, once every few years. Occasionally, elected members have more than a lobby-fodder role. But, for the most part, the rich and politically powerful carve things up together to their mutual advantage.

The window on Lord Mandelson and his rich Russian friend might show an innocent picture. But our suspicion of wheels within wheels, quid pro quo and all that, inevitably puts Lord M on the spot.

Unhappily, the noble lord didn’t help himself over the little matter of his early meetings with Mr Deripaska. A statement from his office said: “Lord Mandelson has met Mr Deripaska at a few social gatherings in 2006 and 2007.” This doesn’t reveal previous meetings, which Lord Mandelson now admits.

Was that by design, carelessness, or a slip of memory? Some of us might view it as a perfect example of political deception – true, yet not honest.

DEPARTMENT of fatuous remarks. “The vast majority of fans behaved well” – Chief Supt Neil Mackay’s take on the sickening violence that marred last weekend’s Tyne- Wear derby at Sunderland. We really would be beyond hope if only a small majority of almost 48,000 fans at a football match behaved well.

On second thoughts we are probably beyond hope already. Five hundred police were deployed at the game. Fifty years ago the number would have been closer to five.

THE day before it was announced that Alan Bennett was donating his diaries and other papers to Oxford University I had been listening to a CD of Bennett reading from his diaries – a gift from a friend. One gem tells of his visit to a chip shop, where he is intrigued to hear a youth ask about “the kestrel under the counter”. Inquiring about the bird, he discovers that Kestrel is a lager.

“I imagine that the future is going to contain an increasing number of incidents like this.”

Not only for him. Why isn’t a Blackberry a bramble? And what is a Blackberry anyway?

DUE to become the father of a second child by his mistress, at the age of 68, actor Sir Michael Gambon is said to be “very worried” about what his wife thinks of it.

She must differ from the generality of wives if her opinion can’t be anticipated and Sir Michael and his belongings aren’t already out on the street.