The new bill introduced to deal with some constitutional matters has created a flurry in interest, notably relating to Mr. Peter Mandelson, late of this parish, now Baron of Foy (the people there were not asked) and Hartlepool (famous for hanging a monkey, and the people there were not asked either). The discussion is concerned with speculation as to his ambitions, in that there is a clause suggesting that Life Peers can renege or regurgitate or something to go back to being common.
My personal view is that with the expulsion of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords, the next step is to end the hereditary head of state, that is the monarchy. To do this Mandelson is better positioning himself in the House of Commons, as MP possibly for one of Labour’s London or Yorkshire Rotten Boroughs, from which he might then rise to be our first President Mandelson, when the time is ripe.
In the meantime, however, he will have to do something else, and either in addition to being First Secretary of State and all that it is suggested that he has the fond hope of following in Grandad’s footsteps, or rather boot prints, to become Foreign Secretary. Grandad, if you did not know, was Herbert Morrison, who dedicated his life firstly to gerrymandering the map of London to make it safe for socialists, and secondly to becoming the grey eminence of the cabinet and Attlee’s successor. He did not entirely succeed. Where he did succeed was in being a pain in the neck all round, and a thoroughly destructive influence in the body politic.
My personal view is that with the expulsion of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords, the next step is to end the hereditary head of state, that is the monarchy. To do this Mandelson is better positioning himself in the House of Commons, as MP possibly for one of Labour’s London or Yorkshire Rotten Boroughs, from which he might then rise to be our first President Mandelson, when the time is ripe.
In the meantime, however, he will have to do something else, and either in addition to being First Secretary of State and all that it is suggested that he has the fond hope of following in Grandad’s footsteps, or rather boot prints, to become Foreign Secretary. Grandad, if you did not know, was Herbert Morrison, who dedicated his life firstly to gerrymandering the map of London to make it safe for socialists, and secondly to becoming the grey eminence of the cabinet and Attlee’s successor. He did not entirely succeed. Where he did succeed was in being a pain in the neck all round, and a thoroughly destructive influence in the body politic.
It must be in the genes
How history repeats itself, rarely for the best.
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