Most conspiracy theories depart me chilly. I’ve by no means believed for one second that Princess Diana was murdered by MI5 on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh. I am virtually sure that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, performing alone.
And although I’ve often had my doubts, I am fairly certain that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin actually did land on the Moon, 40 years in the past subsequent month, moderately than mocking up the mission in a movie studio on planet Earth.
However there’s one idea doing the rounds which inserts the details so precisely that I am 95 per cent satisfied it have to be true.
Energy: Peter Mandelson tried to maintain potential rebels to Gordon Brown on board
I first noticed it floated on Sunday by my pal and former colleague Daniel Hannan, the Tory MEP who grew to become a YouTube sensation for his masterly demolition of Gordon Brown’s financial coverage, delivered within the European Parliament within the presence of a squirming Prime Minister.
That is the idea, as he places it with brutal simplicity: ‘Lord Mandelson is destroying Labour for the sake of the EU.’
In a nutshell, Mr Hannan believes the newly appointed First Secretary is so determined to see a European superstate established that he’s decided to prop up our more and more unpopular Prime Minister till after the re-run of the Irish referendum, which can happen in October.
I see no flaw in his reasoning. In any case, Lord Mandelson is as properly conscious as the remainder of us that the longer Mr Brown clings on to workplace, the grimmer Labour’s electoral probabilities look (and anybody banking on an financial restoration to avoid wasting the social gathering’s bacon clearly hasn’t been listening to the forecasts of the Organisation for Financial Co- operation and Growth or the Governor of the Financial institution of England).
Why, then, did the person so aptly nicknamed the Prince of Darkness step in to avoid wasting his previous enemy, rallying the Blairites to stay by Mr Brown after Labour’s meltdown within the native and European elections?
Extra from Tom Utley for the Each day Mail…
With one snap of his fingers, he may have despatched the Prime Minister packing. At his command, not less than half a dozen different disaffected Ministers would have joined Hazel Blears, Caroline Flint, James Purnell and the others who resigned within the Pygmies’ Revolt, making Mr Brown’s place untenable.
However the Mandelson fingers remained unsnapped. As a substitute, his Lordship deployed all his huge powers of persuasion to maintain the potential rebels on board. Why?
I stated earlier I used to be solely 95 per cent satisfied by Mr Hannan’s idea. That is as a result of 5 per cent of me believes it potential that Mandelson rescued Brown for the sheer camp delight of all these fancy titles he was supplied, and the heady prospect of some months as successfully the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK.
I’ve little doubt that it provides him a buzz when he appears at himself within the shaving mirror every morning and thinks: ‘Hiya, good-looking – or might I name you the Rt Hon Baron Mandelson of Foy within the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool within the County of Durham, First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Enterprise, Innovation and Abilities and Lord President of the Council?’
There is a ring of reality, too, concerning the assertion on this week’s Spectator that he made it a situation of shoring up Mr Brown that the Iraq Conflict inquiry ought to be held in secret, in order to guard Blair’s popularity. In any case, he was the Dr Frankenstein who created the ‘Model Blair’ monster – and none of us likes to see our creations publicly destroyed.
However I reckon it does Mandelson lower than justice to recommend that private vainness and the possibility to do a favour for the unspeakable Mr Blair had been his chief motives for risking the annihilation of his grandfather’s Labour Get together, to which he has devoted his life since he left the Younger Communists.
True, he could also be a ‘slithering Machiavelli’, as this paper described him yesterday. However on one difficulty he has by no means wavered: he stays a passionate believer in an EU superstate as the most effective hope for the continent’s future – a conviction that has grown even stronger over his previous 4 years as a European Commissioner, using first-class on the Brussels gravy prepare.
Right this moment, solely two obstacles stand in the best way of turning his lifelong dream of a superstate into actuality. One is the referendum in Eire – however then the Irish have been supplied so many concessions since they voted No to Lisbon that they’re thought virtually sure to vote Sure this time.
The opposite is the danger of an election in Britain earlier than the Irish have had their say – bringing victory for the Tories, who’ve promised to carry a referendum right here if the amended Lisbon Treaty hasn’t been ratified by all 27 member states by the point they arrive to energy.
So all that Lord Mandelson has to do to attain his dream – maybe with Blair as the primary President of Europe and he himself as chef de cupboard – is to maintain Mr Brown clinging on for simply 4 valuable months. For he is aware of he can depend on the Prime Minister to disregard the desires of the folks.
When you ask me, what we’re witnessing right here is the best conspiracy in opposition to our democracy in my 55-year lifetime. If it succeeds, we are able to kiss goodbye to the British topic’s historic proper to have a say in how our nation is ruled.
Neither Gordon Brown or Tony Blair wished a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty
In my column final week, after I cited a couple of examples from the checklist of Mr Brown’s brazen lies, I absent-mindedly omitted his most outrageous whopper of the lot.
This can be a lie, first instructed by Mr Blair and repeated by his successor, which has been used to perpetrate a fraud in opposition to the citizens a thousand instances extra severe even than the Commons bills scandal, for it strikes on the coronary heart of our democracy.
I imply, in fact, the monstrous fiction that there’s any materials distinction between the Lisbon Treaty and the European Structure upon which Labour unequivocally promised a referendum in its final election manifesto.
Now, I am not a child. I perceive there could also be loads of the reason why governments fail to maintain their election guarantees. In any case, circumstances might change, generally the cash is not there and infrequently what regarded like a good suggestion seems to be impracticable.
However no such excuses apply to Mr Brown’s resolution to go forward and ratify the Lisbon Treaty with out giving us the promised referendum. The cash was there, the printing presses had been out there for the poll papers, the polling stations had been prepared and ready.
However no. Neither Blair nor Brown wished a referendum, solely as a result of they feared it would not give the decision they sought. So that they merely fell again on a lie.
The one remotely comparable case I can consider was that of H’Angus the monkey, the joke candidate for the mayoralty of Lord Mandelson’s Hartlepool, who stood on a promise to distribute free bananas to the city’s schoolchildren.
No sooner was he elected – to his amazement and all people else’s – than he tried to wriggle out his pledge, suggesting it had simply been a joke.
Have been Blair and Brown simply joking after they promised us our referendum? Neglect the financial disaster and the obscene greed of the bankers. Neglect all these pilfering politicians who’ve helped themselves to our cash. With the correct reforms, one thing may be finished about them.
However in simply 4 months’ time, if Lord Mandelson will get his slithery manner, a Authorities having fun with the assist of solely 15 per cent of British voters within the Euro-elections will signal away to an alien energy our proper to decide on our personal insurance policies on an enormous vary of points, from migration to vitality.
How can our ministers preach to the Iranians concerning the conduct of their elections, after they’ve make such a mockery of our personal?
