Peter Mandelson

I feel sorry for Kwasi Kwarteng

[Getty Images] 
issue 08 October 2022

In Singapore last week, I was asked: do ministers just come in, reach for the dumbest available policy and go ahead without asking anyone what the consequences will be? I explained the mindset. They do not ask because they do not want to hear the reply. In their minds, they are up against old thinking that just wants to keep Britain on the same declinist path – or ‘cycle of stagnation’ as Kwasi Kwarteng described the record of his Tory predecessors – and if you want to break new ground, don’t ask the people who will always say no. This is what Labour’s far-left Bennite wing think. Labour ministers didn’t try proper socialism because they were cowed by a combination of ‘experts’, the civil service and the City establishment. Where will this approach to government end up? Without achieving very much, I suspect. I feel (slightly) sorry for Kwarteng. I like individualist politicians who do not come from central casting.

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