Mandy’s secret employer and other little gems

Mandy, interviewed by The Sunday Times, is getting all confused and mixing up the future with the present:

In the right conditions and on the right basis I probably would. If I was asked to do something for my country using that asset base, as you say, I’d consider it. But it wouldn’t be serving the government, it would be serving the country and I wouldn’t be doing it by becoming a member of that government… You’re the first person to raise it… It wouldn’t involve joining the Conservative government, I’m too tribal.

Perhaps the poor fella doesn't realise that by supporting Brown he already is working for the Tories.

Whilst on a trade mission to China, Downing Street can’t do without him:

An aide tells Mandelson that Jeremy Heywood, head of the No 10 Policy Unit, is on the phone. Mandelson says: “Not now.” But then the aide pushes the phone into his hands. “When did this happen?” barks Mandelson, presumably to Heywood. He dives into a room to talk.

What was all that about?

Ed Balls undermining Brown on Libya?

He dreams about how Blair would have handled the non-election of 2007:

That was damaging… The assumption was made that [the election] would take place, then it was called off while maintaining the claim that this has nothing to do with public opinion or the opinion polls. It wasn’t credible.

How would Blair have handled it?

He would give one of his impish smiles, suggest it was a tough question, then tap-dance his way out of it.

You can almost hear him add in his mind: “Good times, good times.”

Indeed they were.