Peter's many long suffering friends will be in despair. Once again he has shown that, left to his own devices, he does something silly which will haunt him for years.
Lord Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the County of Durham has allowed himself to be dressed up as a ridiculous Dickensian character to publicise the serialisation of his memoirs in the Times.
Sitting in a large armchair by a fire – and with the noise of a storm in the background – Mandelson opens an old tome as he says:
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time there was a kingdom. For many years it was ruled by two powerful kings. But the kings wouldn't have been in power without a third man. People called him the Prince of Darkness. I don't know why. But this fairy tale wouldn't have a happy ending. But that is for next time.
As Mandelson might say when offering advice to others: there are so many things wrong with the little video it is difficult to know where to start. But let's make a stab:
• The video will never go away. Whenever programmes are made about Mandelson for years to come, film makers will have an easy way to mock him.
• The video shows an over inflated sense of Mandelson's own worth as he says that neither Tony Blair nor Gordon Brown would have made it to No 10 without him.
That is nonsense. It is certainly true that, as director of communications for the Labour party in the 1980s, Mandelson ensured that Blair and Brown were on television all the time. But their talent was spotted by Neil Kinnock before Mandelson moved to Walworth Road in 1985. Kinnock appointed Blair to the frontbench in 1984, a year after his election to parliament, and Brown followed in 1985, having turned down a job in 1984.
The history of Mandelson's involvement in the Labour leadership contest in 1994 is well known: he had felt Brown was a strong contender to succeed John Smith but, after agonising, decided that Blair was the natural winner. "Bobby", as Mandelson was known when he ran Blair's leadership campaign in secret, provided crucial advice. But Blair would have become leader whatever Mandelson thought.
Mandelson had no role in Brown's move to No 10 in 2007. By then he was in semi exile in Brussels.
So, once again, Mandelson has shown that while be may be brilliant at offering advice to others, he usually makes a mistake when it comes to running his own affairs.
It will be a pity if the video is all that is remembered of the Mandelson memoirs in the years ahead. They are clearly, as the serialisation in the Times shows, a serious and early draft of the history of New Labour.
