The Three Musketeers
I have just finished reading The Third Man - Peter Mandelson's account of how he helped make the Labour party electable again.
Along with fellow Musketeers - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
To be fair it's rollicking good read - a bit self-serving, here are there - as you'd expect.
For example, Mandelson pulls his punches in re-living Gordon Brown's final few days as Prime Minister - as New Labour finally crashed and burned.
But it does confirm just how dysfunctional the Labour government was - witness the following extract from the year 2000 - six months out from a general election.
"In November, Tony summoned both of us to a stragey session at Number 10. He began by outlining the organisational and policy challeneges for the campaign, and emphasised how important it was for his 'two best people' (i.e. Mandleson and Brown) to work together.
Gordon interrupted.
The whole approach to the election was nonsense , he said. Not just the idea of my involvement, though he made clear he was not keen on that, but the fact that Tony didn't 'get it'.
He was focusing on 'side issues', like law and order or asylum or immigration, and didn't have the faintest idea of what the campaing should really be about.
Gordon said the onl ything that had distinguished our first-term government was the economy: It's about time you realised thatt the economy is what we should run on. The key 'dividing line' was his plan for the economy versus the Tories'.
The Tories screwed up the economy, and we've given the people stability and growth,' he said. It's about time you fucking realised that's all the election is about'.
I was shocked. Not by Gordon's Treasury-centric view of the universe, nor of course to his resistance to my involvement in the campaign, but by the venom he was directing at the man who was, after all, Prime Minister, and by the language he used.
It was embarrassing. Without a word, I left the room. Jonathan (Powell) was in the office outside. 'I can't believe the way Gordon is talking', I said. Jonathan smiled, and replied, 'This is what we put up with every week.' "
What jumps out from the book is what a strange person Gordon Brown is - and how much time he spent pursuing a poisonous feud with Tony Blair - despite the fact that Blair had been overwhelmingly elected as Labour leader.
But instead of Blair sacking Brown or moving him to another position - the feuding went on for years, creating bad blood and rival camps - before ending in an all too predictable mess at the 2010 general election.
So Labour's Three Musketeers are no more - gone but not forgotten - yet the abiding memory is of an opportunity missed - to work together and really punch above their weight.
Along with fellow Musketeers - Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
To be fair it's rollicking good read - a bit self-serving, here are there - as you'd expect.
For example, Mandelson pulls his punches in re-living Gordon Brown's final few days as Prime Minister - as New Labour finally crashed and burned.
But it does confirm just how dysfunctional the Labour government was - witness the following extract from the year 2000 - six months out from a general election.
"In November, Tony summoned both of us to a stragey session at Number 10. He began by outlining the organisational and policy challeneges for the campaign, and emphasised how important it was for his 'two best people' (i.e. Mandleson and Brown) to work together.
Gordon interrupted.
The whole approach to the election was nonsense , he said. Not just the idea of my involvement, though he made clear he was not keen on that, but the fact that Tony didn't 'get it'.
He was focusing on 'side issues', like law and order or asylum or immigration, and didn't have the faintest idea of what the campaing should really be about.
Gordon said the onl ything that had distinguished our first-term government was the economy: It's about time you realised thatt the economy is what we should run on. The key 'dividing line' was his plan for the economy versus the Tories'.
The Tories screwed up the economy, and we've given the people stability and growth,' he said. It's about time you fucking realised that's all the election is about'.
I was shocked. Not by Gordon's Treasury-centric view of the universe, nor of course to his resistance to my involvement in the campaign, but by the venom he was directing at the man who was, after all, Prime Minister, and by the language he used.
It was embarrassing. Without a word, I left the room. Jonathan (Powell) was in the office outside. 'I can't believe the way Gordon is talking', I said. Jonathan smiled, and replied, 'This is what we put up with every week.' "
What jumps out from the book is what a strange person Gordon Brown is - and how much time he spent pursuing a poisonous feud with Tony Blair - despite the fact that Blair had been overwhelmingly elected as Labour leader.
But instead of Blair sacking Brown or moving him to another position - the feuding went on for years, creating bad blood and rival camps - before ending in an all too predictable mess at the 2010 general election.
So Labour's Three Musketeers are no more - gone but not forgotten - yet the abiding memory is of an opportunity missed - to work together and really punch above their weight.
