Friday, July 16, 2010
Spectator sport
I am listening to a radio discussion about Peter Mandelson's book about the New Labour project and in particular his claim that the Labour Party in Wales suffered electorally because they eschewed the Blair project and instead campaigned as old-style Labour.
Meanwhile, the BBC report that the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has claimed that the ex-business secretary has become a "caricature" of himself:
"I had cause to say some years ago - when somebody asked me, either when Peter was coming in or going out of a cabinet job, I can't remember which - that my view of Peter was that he wasn't as good as he thought he was, and he was certainly not as bad as many people said he was.
"And I think that was a fair summary. The problem is with Peter, I really do believe - and I'm sorry about it in many ways, because he's got great capabilities, and he's been prepared to donate those capabilities to the cause of Labour - but the fact is, so much was said about him as, for instance, the Prince of Spin, and the Prince of Darkness, that he inhaled and he's actually come to believe that caricature of himself."
It is a good spectator sport but really, who cares?
Meanwhile, the BBC report that the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has claimed that the ex-business secretary has become a "caricature" of himself:
"I had cause to say some years ago - when somebody asked me, either when Peter was coming in or going out of a cabinet job, I can't remember which - that my view of Peter was that he wasn't as good as he thought he was, and he was certainly not as bad as many people said he was.
"And I think that was a fair summary. The problem is with Peter, I really do believe - and I'm sorry about it in many ways, because he's got great capabilities, and he's been prepared to donate those capabilities to the cause of Labour - but the fact is, so much was said about him as, for instance, the Prince of Spin, and the Prince of Darkness, that he inhaled and he's actually come to believe that caricature of himself."
It is a good spectator sport but really, who cares?
