Image Attribution: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (Wikimedia Commons)
Lewis Goodall hit the nail on the head when he pointed out “what Starmer can’t say”, which is that Peter Mandelson was made the UK’s Ambassador to the US for precisely the same reasons he has been involved in every other role he has held in politics.
“The Prince of Darkness” is much more than just a cringeworthy nickname attributed to and publicly embraced by Mandelson; it dramatises his appeal to those in power; getting things done that no one else could, through his connections, his sinister network which however grim it is morally, it moves the dial. That is exactly why he was deployed by Starmer to be Britain’s man in Trump’s court – the philosophy behind it was that in a world of sinners, a sinner is needed to avoid the UK from being targeted by a mafia state due to a perceived vulnerability. “You need a sinner to catch a sinner”, was the overly simplistic and hopelessly naïve thinking behind Mandelson’s appointment. It has inevitably backfired, as we have seen before with Mandelson; and the story here is not just one of treason, but one much wider about the state of our political culture, and how it is the source of the decline of Britian as a state.
The revelations from the newly released files surrounding the case of convicted paedophile and child sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, has created a window into how power really operates. It is shameless, self-congratulatory, self-serving, and self-righteous in its nature. It’s the misogyny, the lack of self-awareness, the lack of standards, the lack of humility in those emails and messages, that paints a picture of a body politic that is rotten to its core:
(BBC News) “On the day Epstein is released from jail, in July 2009, the two friends appear to have been in a jubilant mood.
“Free and home,” Epstein emails the then Labour peer at 08.37am on 22 July.
“How shall we celebrate?” writes back Lord Mandelson, who at the time was business secretary under Gordon Brown.
“With grace and modesty (those are the names of two strippers),” Epstein replies.
“From now on, grace and modesty sd [should] be discovered in London,” Lord Mandelson appears to joke back a few hours later, before adding: “How is freedom feeling?”
“She feels fresh, firm and creamy,” Epstein says.
Lord Mandelson responds with two words: “Naughty boy.”
This scandal will rightfully lead to individual downfalls as it has done with Mandelson himself and now the prime minister’s Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, but what we cannot do as a society is view this as a narrow story. This is a crisis that reflects a political culture that is detrimental and in-ward looking. A political culture that prioritises cliques, contacts and networks is one that leads to wider decline and the poisoning of any internal standards. The Mandelson story is an x-ray vision into the infection that has created a cycle of political failure across British politics and political media. For all the talk of political strategy and change, a cultural reset across politics, one that overhauls ‘the lobby’ is desperately needed. Don’t forget the commentators, journalists and the backbench MPs that are now either bunkered own or carrying on as usual just hoping that people forget or don’t see their public association with Mandelson, who was consistently embraced by so many across British politics and political journalism, despite his relationship with Epstein being public knowledge for years.
The irony is that Starmer’s vision of “a return of politics to public service”, encapsulates the broad change that is needed, but such a vision needs moral authority that is now lacking due to the decision to hire Mandelson whilst knowing that he continued his friendship with Epstein, after Epstein was first charged with child sex trafficking and paedophilia. Starmer has his own contempt of political culture and the lobby, it’s a fact that for many in Westminster bubbles makes him unsupportable, but his diagnosis of British politics is correct, as exemplified by scandals such as yet another Mandelson scandal, that Starmer himself is at the centre of, ‘partygate’ and the expenses scandal to list only a few that have been windows into a political bubble that needs to be burst.
Gordon Brown is right to point out that the House of Lords has 50 lobbyists as members; the lack of standards in politics is a crisis in itself that is rooted to the very heart of our political system. The decline of trust in politics is aligned with the decline of standards of politician. If we are to improve the standards of political leadership in public life, a new political culture needs to be established, one that is a distinct separation from the cliquey networks, lobbyists and anonymous briefing culture that Britian has been a hostage to. Just look at the case study of Mandelson himself and his lobbying synergy with Jeffrey Epstein; greater regulation and transparency over corporate/consultant lobbying is needed. If Starmer wishes to make his vision for the role of politics in society to be one of public service, changing the political culture in this country is essential alongside reducing the cost of living, growing the economy and revitalising public services across Britian.
It’s not a coincidence that in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, nationalist parties who oppose their nation’s part of the UK are all topping the opinion polls. Likewise in England, a populist party in Reform UK is ahead in the polls, with more and more voters backing a party that is seen as a political earthquake to shake things up. People recognise that politics is not delivering and has not done for over a decade, this combined with scandal after scandal, and the destruction of standards in public life; trust in the ability of our public servants and leaders is in the gutter.
But the Mandelson betrayal in itself is not the biggest scandal connected to the wider story of Jeffrey Epstein and his child sex trafficking and paedophilia web. The biggest scandal here is the lack of humanity, the lack of compassion for the victims whose lives have been obliterated by what they have suffered. Political power both in this country and across the world has never properly learned the lessons of this sickening case; and accountability for those involved in Epstein’s enclaves has never materialised, with only Ghislaine Maxwell being in prison for her central role in Epstein’s trafficking operation. That is the real story here; one of immense injustice, cruelty, corruption and tragedy.
