Peter Mandelson’s rocky path to Trumpworld

The muddle about who’s to be the next British ambassador in Washington has been only a small part of the grandiose confusion which surrounds Donald Trump’s assumption of power. Sir Keir Starmer announced that Lord Peter Mandelson would bring ‘unrivalled experience to the role and take [the Anglo-American] partnership from strength to strength’, apparently without checking first that President Trump would be willing to accept him. The US President’s campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, said Mandelson was ‘an absolute moron’ who should ‘stay home’.

He did nothing to improve his prospects when he described Trump as ‘reckless and a danger to the world’

How ambassadors get appointed is a mystery to most people. Why do we waste the money on them anyway? They live in big houses and give grand parties where they pour champagne and dish out Ferrero Rocher chocolates. They don’t seem to do anything much all day. National leaders can now speak to one another anywhere in the world at any hour of the day or night. They can settle their business directly without cumbersome intermediaries. And no ambassador, surely, can keep them informed as speedily as the 24-hour press and television?

It’s not that easy. Politicians are busy enough trying to manage their own domestic affairs. They rarely have the time or knowledge to handle foreigners effectively as well. For many centuries they preferred to do so through intermediaries instead. At first, they sent heralds to do the business. As things became more complicated – in Europe it was during the Renaissance – they chose people whom they could trust to do the business on the spot. And for all they may boast about their chummy relationship with Vlad or Don, even today’s politicians turn to their local guy when they want a sense of what their opposite numbers are really up to.