Schoolboy errors

In December 1998, as Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet for the first time, he and Tony Blair spelt out a modern doctrine for responsible political conduct. ‘We came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in public life,’ Mandelson wrote to Blair. ‘We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so’ (italics added). The then Prime Minister replied: ‘As you said to me “we can’t be like the last lot”.’ This, rather than any technical breach of the rules, was why Mr Mandelson had to go ten years ago, when his secret £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson was disclosed.

Thus were two crucial principles established (even if they have been more honoured in the breach than the observance by New Labour in the intervening decade). First, adherence to the letter of the rules is not enough: a politician must be perceived to be doing so. Second, a governing party must show the public that it has learned the correct lessons from the errors of the previous regime. It was crucial to Blair that his relatively new administration not be seen to be replicating the tawdry practices of Tory ‘sleaze’.

George Osborne has long been an astute student of the New Labour era, emulating the political methods that are worth copying, while identifying the failures which a future Conservative government cannot afford to make if it is to earn and keep the trust of the electorate. He has a superb strategic mind. So it is remarkable that he, of all people, should not have seen the folly of his repeated contacts with the Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, in Corfu over the summer.