If Peter Mandelson can’t handle Trump, no one can

If Peter Mandelson is confirmed as our next ambassador to Washington there will be an outcry among swathes of both the right and the left of British politics. There always is when Mandelson lands a plum position. On the left, the resentment began over his transfer of allegiance from Gordon Brown to Tony Blair more than 30 years ago. But it really gained momentum after Blair parachuted him in to be Northern Ireland secretary in place of Mo Mowlam in the autumn of 1999.

Grassroots Labour mythology sprung up around the idea that Mowlam was being punished by Blair for being too popular and that Mandelson had been manoeuvring for her job. He had been sacked from the cabinet late in 1998 over his taking of a secret loan from fellow Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson.

The more prosaic truth was that Mowlam’s relationship with Unionist politicians had deteriorated to the point that it had become an impediment to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.