Peter Mandelson

The Guardian published an interview with Peter Mandelson, now Lord Mandelson of Foy, on Saturday in which he suggests he was surprised to be invited back into the Cabinet in October.

Not half as surprised as some of us in the local party were I can assure you!

Getting caught taking a bribe to sidetrack an investigation – sorry, interest free loan from a friend who's business dealings were, by pure coincidence, under investigation by Mr Mandelson's department – is usually by itself quite sufficient to exclude one from the Cabinet, but Tony went ahead and re-appointed him anyway. Then our Peter got caught attempting to arrange a British passport for one of the Hinduja brothers who's involvement in the Bofors scandal was under investigation by the Indian government.

Being unable to re-appoint him to the Cabinet a second time, Tony sent him to Brussels as EU Trade Commissioner where, a mere five weeks later, he spent New Years Eve 2004 on the luxury yacht of Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft – which, by a strange coincidence, was the subject of a major EU investigation.

Does anyone else notice a pattern developing here?

So why did Gordo invite him back into the Cabinet? Who is under investigation and needs our Peter to rescue them from the consequences of their own greed and stupidity?

But then again, Gordo also appointed Ms. Waccy-Baccy to the post of Home Secretary despite her known 'eccentricities' which would, in anyone else, be referred to as 'Mental Health Issues'.

So perhaps the forthcoming list of businesses which should be rescued in the event of insolvency is simply that...