Terry Prone: Peter Mandelson abandons his principles for a magnificent Trump back-pedal
In politics, principles are often temporary. Mandelson, RFK Jr, and others show how back-pedalling is a survival strategy
Originally published in the Irish Examiner.
No disrespect to the Chinese, who believe that this is the Year of the Snake. Actually, it’s the year of the back-pedal, most of it generated by America’s recycled president.
Take Britain’s new ambassador to Washington, one Peter Mandelson, a former minister in what was once called New Labour, mainly because guys like Mandelson were determined to re-brand the British Labour Party as something cool, groovy, and down with the kids.
Mandelson is now a peer, which is what you get from retiring prime ministers to whom you have shown outstanding loyalty. (What you get in the United States from retiring presidents for the same service are preemptive pardons to keep you out of jail.)
Mandelson knows how to craft and utter a headline-grabbing statement. He really does. Always did. He may not be quite as smart when it comes to strategic thinking, but headline-grabbers rarely are. Not saying anything about Justin Trudeau and the blackface episodes.
A little while ago, Mandelson described Donald Trump as a bully, adding that he was reckless and a danger to the world. Now, let’s be honest here. Many of us might agree with Mandelson on this, but one person who would not would be The Donald.
Although it’s fair to suggest that President Trump may not give a sugar about what a retired British minister says about him — up to a point, that point being the day when the current Labour administration decides it would be a wizard wheeze to send one of the architects of Cool Britannia to the US as King Charles’s ambassador.
That’s when such colourful statements, once, perhaps, considered by Mandelson as inarguable, became just a little problematic.
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