'umble Mandelson and the House of Foy

Watch Peter Mandelson being introduced to the Lords

The House of Lords has just been introduced to its newest member: Baron Mandelson of Foy in the county of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the county of Durham. Just Lord Mandelson to you and me, thank you.

Every since he turned up in Downing Street in that red sweater, he has been seeking to head off accusations of grandeur. For instance, see how the geographical designation in his title recalls a humble period in his life, before he started spending time on eames chairs and yachts.

In the late 1970s and eighties, Lord Mandelson owned a small, semi-detached cottage in a hamlet in the Welsh borders near Ross-on Wye, Herefordshire. According to a Daily Mirror tearjerker - by one Alastair Campbell in 1989 - it was a humble house with no carpets ('just a collection of various rugs'), a 'minuscule hall' and three bedrooms, two of which were 'very small singles.' Even the three-piece suite was second-hand, and that the Vermeer prints on the walls had been 'ripped from an art book.'  The choice of Foy is no coincidence

The Mandelson makeover continues.

Comments

[RobertD]

I keep trying to convince myself that the House of Lords is a valuable institution that can use experience and independence to provide a check on the wilder extremes of the elected teenages in the HoC.

Then they go an fill it with Mandelson and his ilk..........and I revert to thoughts of tumbrills, lamp posts and piano wire.

[David]

Ugh.

[HUGH LONDON]

Giving a man like this an historical title and another personal thiefdom to add to the millions he has already amasssed for incompetence is everything that stinks about Brown/Blair. Hypocrits one and all!
Another fine mess to blame on Mandy next year with a big payoff no doubt already guaranteed.
At least "some" of the bank fat cats did earn their money and billions and billions for this country besides over the last decades. Interesting to see the profitability of RBOS and the taxes it will pay now Brown controls it.
Any bets that the illegal bank charges case is now settled in the banks favour!! Seem to recall a brown suited scottish gentleman promising to stop all those excessive bank charges and profits some twelve years ago!!
Thanks for the improved regulation you promised Gordon. Time for another pay off me thinks.

[Lilith Barrett]

The phrase- you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear comes to mind.!

[Lloyd]

Good grief! There is far more important stuff to concern ourselves with so what if Mandy is now a Baron, does it make one ounce of difference. Lets focus on the big picture before we are all plunged into the abyss of financial ruin due to stupid bankers.

[karlos]

OMG............

[Dwsi]

Whacko. This is good news. Now that most of the civilised world is in the same economic state we at last have parity amongst all peoples; i.e. worse off than we were. I hope that Lord (Peter)
Mandelson will brign some colour to the Lords and poltics as a whole.

[Novel Chef]

There was an old codger called Mandy
Who enrobed as the Baron of Foy
He's Brown's new best mate
Who will get the best rate
To secure re-election via ploys

[MR KAZOO]

Reminds me of an episode of Blackadder third when Baldrick ends up a Lord. Is his collar made of finest Cat? Shocking.

[Patrick Walesby]

Well, buy buy Mandy, hello Lady Fay

[Simon]

The decision to enoble Mandleson is disgraceful. How on earth can it be right to put this man in the Lords, a man who has had to resign from the Government twice for a lack of integrity.

The values and standards of this Government are even clearer.

[David Benson]

I hope the other Lords and barons walk out in disgust.

[Glenn]

Can somone please explain to me how this muppet keeps getting lucrative jobs? What exactly is his special talent? I give it a month before he has to resign again. Maybe we could have a new whidunnit board game..."clueless". It was Lord mandleson on the Russian Oligarch's yacht with the import duty exemption...

[christoph]

Brown-hatted , is this the Naval term for making a peer ?

[Tony G]

Brown has managed to demean the value of every British institution. As the High Priest of the Global Credit Crunch (and of the Global Warming, and of the Rain Forests), does Brown consider self respect among Britons to be a counter-religion?

[R.McGeddon]

Who said crime does nt pay ?

[Mad_Max]

Not a popular appointment! Any good with anagrams? 'Baron Mandelson of Foy' should take care not to 'offend nobly as a moron'.

[Karl Marx]

Sickening. We should be striving for a world where our leaders are altruistic and serve the people before themselves, instead we just seem to get the opposite.

[john]

will somebody please tell me how people who are Labour/Socialist can think about voting for "New Labour" when you look at how Blair and Mandleson, just for two, have stuck their noses so deeply into the money nose-bag without any scruples.Why on earth Brown asked the sleaze-ball Mandleson back, and why M gave up the EU gravy train is a very interesting question. Maybe we will learn the answers in many years time when the period of confidentiality is up and the afformentioned are either in their graves or ,,,,,

[Mark Cameron]

At first I used to think "what on earth are the government doing, inviting someone like Mandy back in? Do they not realise that they are destroying British Politics, by creating a den of iniquities?"
And then it dawned upon me; they are trying to destroy the political system in the UK and to make people even more apathetic than they already are. After all, their plan is total control from Brussels and eventually Brussels will elect the government here not the people.
No need to speak of Mandy's history, but the appointment of him back into the Cabinet and becoming a Baron, sums up just how corrupt our Political system is.
They riot in the streets of India if bus fares go up. Farmer's tractors drop manure on the roads and motorways when the governments give them a raw deal and what do the British do?
If people don't complain and show their anger then nothing will ever change and unfortunately I don't see very many 'active' angry people protesting, striking or doing anything about our decadent society run by despicable politicians with their snouts shoved deep into the trough.

[alan]

The man is a disgrace to the country and so are those who have put him there. He personally set the example to the rest of the country, when he got away with being prosecuted for false declaration in obtaining a loan, that has encouraged others and those dealing with housing to do the same. This influence on attitudes caused false loans, escalating house prices and played a major part in our current financial crisis.

[ET Shaw]

Does this mean that his( P M 's) Partner is now Lady Mandelson?
We should be told.

[Edwin]

It is a mark of how bereft of talent, competency and integrity are the Labour rank and file that Brown is forced to dredge up this low-life who previously has been forced to resign, not once, but twice, from ministerial positions.

God help Britain when our leaders, policy makers and legislature are so intellectually challenged. It is a sure sign of worse to come.

[will]

if ever there was a reason to take appointments to the HoL out of government hands.

[Victor M]

Is that Foy or fey? This whole matter is so laughable I don't know how anybody can keep a straight face. With the world as we know it collapsing around us...then this rot. This moron in 'ermine,' or is it nylon these days?
Pass the sick bowl Alice. Political appointments such as this should be made to renounce their titles at the end of their job vacancy.