And another thing…

HOWEVER much I like and respect Peter Mandelson (and if he is, as some say, a “Marmite” politician, then I come down on the side of those who have a positive view of the man), I do hope he won’t be pushing for a change in the electoral system for the Commons, as Mack Pack reports today.

Apparently, in a question and answer session at the London School of economics today, Lord Mandelson said:

Now, does that mean to say that there is no change that could be made in our voting system in our country so that people really feel that it’s fairer and more representative? No,I don’t think we should reject contemplating any sort of change and I think that’s something that we’re going to have to address in the coming months.

I hope that before he addresses the issue in the coming months, he will use his pocket calculator to work out that it’s not going to happen: there are enough Labour MPs, combined with the vast majority of the Parliamentary Conservative Party, to defeat such nonsense before it gets off the ground. It’s possible that the LibDems might even vote against any system that wasn’t a pure Single Transferable Vote system.

Far better, surely, not to divide the party in the crucial few months before an election?

I DIDN’T go to university; I don’t have a degree.

It’s a matter of deep regret to me and has been for pretty much the whole of my adult life that when I had the opportunity to put in a bit of extra work in the run-up to my exams at school, I chose to do other, more interesting, things instead. Laziness was my downfall.

As it happens, I came from a very poor background and if the plan allegedly being considered by Lord Mandelson to improve social mobility had been in place in the early 1980s, I might have made it to uni.

But that would have been entirely unjust. It would have meant that someone else, someone who was brighter and who was willing to work harder than I, would have been deprived of a place. And my lack of academic success at school had nothing to do with my social background and everything to do with my unwillingness to put in the hours of study needed. Yes, I suppose I could have been more motivated, but again, that was my responsibility. God knows my parents offered me more than enough encouragement as I grew up, so I can’t blame them.

So even though I would have benefited from such a measure at the time, I find the notion of offering working class or deprived pupils a two-grade step-up completely unfair, unjustifiable and patronising. If the government is unhappy with the level of social mobility in the UK, we can’t legislate arbitrarily and artificially to change it; if we did, such mobility that would emerge wouldn’t be real. It would be a chimera.

Why should any pupil who has worked hard at school be denied a place at university? Because he or she is middle class? How appalling. And any working class pupil who went to university on this new “assisted places scheme” would suffer from that stigma for the rest of their career.

Far better, surely, to make sure that every child has an opportunity to receive the best possible school education and then to be judged as equals alongside university applicants from other backgrounds, and not judged as special cases in need of sympathy?

THERE have been two fresh sightings of the decreasingly rare “PM for PM” stories in today’s media.

Goodness me, news editors must really hate this time of year. Starved of some decent political news, they resort to indulging the conspiracy theories of their political editors and end up carrying this kind of thing. And then the Coffee House followed that up, with a reference to “the growing ‘PM for PM’ movement”. Huh? “Growing”? Says whom?

All harmless stuff, I suppose, and it keeps reporters off the streets.

But if you see any “PM for PM” stories, let us know.

WHEN Parliament isn’t sitting, journalists have to try that wee bit harder to justify their existence to their news editors. Which is why stories that wouldn’t normally make it above the crease — or, indeed, onto the front page at all — suddenly become “breaking news”.

For instance, select committees often deliberately time the publication of their latest reports until after the start of the summer recess because they know there will be less competition and more chance of some decent coverage; how many headlines have you seen in the past week featuring the phrase “… say MPs”?

But the silly season is well named, and its staple ingredient is the bonkers story which is clearly nonsense but which the media collude in talking up because it fills up newsprint. “PM for PM” is a typical example.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a fan of Peter Mandelson and have been for a very long time — since long before we came to power, in fact. Not for me the belated acknowledgement of the man’s undoubted skills by those who once denigrated him.

But he’s never going to be Prime Minister or Leader of the Labour Party. You know it, I know it, Peter knows it and the media know it. Michael White knows it too, and spends quite a lot of time (and a lot of newsprint) explaining why today. He draws a historical comparison with Alex Douglas Home leaving the Lords to become Prime Minister in place of Harold Macmillan (political anoraks among you might be interested to know that the young prospective Tory candidate who was persuaded to stand aside to allow Douglas Home to enter the the Commons as MP for Perth was none other tha future Scottish and Defence Secretary, George Younger).

But there’s a slightly more recent (only by a couple of years) example that might be more relevant to the current political situation: when Harold Wilson’s preferred choice for Foreign Secretary, Patrick Gordon Walker, lost his Smethwick seat at the 1964 general election, he was quickly nominated for the first available Labour seat in the Leyton by-election the following January. He lost that too, and had to resign as Foreign Secretary, obliging the new Prime Minister to carry out a mini reshuffle.

By-elections are tricky enough for any government without the added complication of the perception that a well-known figure is being “parachuted” in for career reasons.

Still, this particular story at least does what’s intended: it gives journalists and political types something to gossip (and blog) about. Keeps us off the streets, I suppose.

IS PETER Mandelson about to start a Tom Harris tribute band?

ADAM Boulton has just lifted the lid on the reality behind the urban myth that Peter Mandelson once mistook mushy peas for guacamole in a chip shop.

The incident occurred, said Adam on Sky News, but it was an unnamed American researcher who made the mistake, not Mandelson. The story grew legs, apparently, because Peter’s good friend Neil Kinnock spread it round (the rumour, not the guacamole…).

I’M SAD to see Des Browne leaving the government – he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met in politics. I first met him during the 1992 general election when he was our candidate in the safe Liberal seat of Argyll and Bute. I remember thinking it was a pity he wasn’t going to be an MP after that election, but was delighted when he was adopted at the last minute in Kilmarnock five years later.

I’m also glad about Geoff’s move to transport; he was a good chief whip but I imagine he’ll be glad to get back into a department.

As for the biggest news so far: Mandelson. Brilliant move!

UPDATE at 1.40 pm: For the absence of doubt, that last paragraph was not intended as sarcasm; Peter is an outstanding political talent. I was sad to see him leave last time and I’m delighted he’s back round the cabinet table where he belongs. So there.