Mandelson attacks Sir Terry Wogan. Commits Grade-A Political Error

Lord Mandelson is ramping up the rhetoric against David Cameron. He relishes his role as an experienced attack dog and plans to be out front non-stop between now and polling day. Cameron is the airbrushed candidate, said Peter at the weekend, whereas you can’t even get a “hairbrush” near Gordon Brown (see what he’s done there?)

But then the Dark Lord looked around for lightweight figures with whom Cameron might be bracketed, to emphasise how serious a figure Gordon Brown is. Mandelson told the BBC: “Look, you know he’s not a sort of TV personality. He’s not sort of Terry Wogan or Des O’Connor in the way that some people see David Cameron. Gordon Brown is actually a rather more authentic figure than that and I think when people evaluate the relative merits of both leaders, they may well come to a different conclusion from the one people are assuming now.”

Criticism of Des O’Connor is one thing, but an attack on Sir Terry Wogan? That counts as a major tactical miscalculation for a politician who professes a desire to reach out to the voters of middle England. Wogan is middle England: well-mannered, thoughtful, quietly witty, unostentatious, non-partisan and Irish.

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The Haunting of Tony Blair

Before Tony Blair gave evidence to Chilcot it was broadly agreed that he would walk it, that the inquiry wouldn’t lay a glove on him. And apart from his nerves in the first hour, his session was a superficial victory for the former PM. There was no killer revelation.

But in the end it doesn’t feel like it was any kind of victory for Tony Blair. It was a reminder that no matter how hard he tries he just can’t shake off Iraq.  No matter how far or fast he travels the decisions of 2002-03 will follow him around the globe until the day he dies. His critics won’t give up haunting and taunting him, and he looks like he knows it.

LIVE - Tony Blair at the Iraq inquiry

• • 12:27 pm

  Verdict on the Iran Iraq inquiry 

  Having sat through the whole thing I'm going to take a little time to digest it and will post later tonight with my take. It's easy to say he sailed through it, many will say he did. But it wasn't that simple. He sailed through two thirds of it - 1441, Hans Blix, Peter Goldsmith and the role of the cabinet in policy-making.

  But Freedman had him under serious pressure twice. First, on the way the intelligence around 45 minutes wasn't probed with quite basic questions. And then secondly on the chaos in Iraq that spiralled a year after the war.

  As Fraser Nelson points out, Blair came armed with a preprepared story on Iran. He wanted to talk about the threat it poses as a vindication of his broader analysis of rogue states. The inquiry didn't bite, but at times it seemed like Blair thought he had come along to the Iran rather than the Iraq inquiry.

Broken Britain: If politics isn’t about the Doncaster boys what is it about?

It’s a bad habit to get annoyed watching the BBC’s Question Time on a Thursday evening, and usually best to avoid writing about it. But last night there was a question of such inanity put to the panel that there’s no option.

Wasn’t David Cameron just electioneering when he made a speech about the recent conviction of two boys in Doncaster for torturing two other children? There were murmurs of approval for the question and the panel didn’t really get to grips with it (although Douglas Murray was outstanding across the show).

The question reflects other grumbling about Cameron’s intervention. He’s “playing politics” - “he’s just trying to get votes”.

But for goodness sake: if politics is not about two children being tortured by young boys who have been raised in an underclass hell of abusive parenting, pre-pubescent marijuana smoking, terrorised neighbours and violent videos, then what on earth is it about?

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Cameron Storing Up Future Problems With His Own MPs

James Forsyth, the Spectator’s political editor, has written a killer column for the magazine’s latest issue. David Cameron and George Osborne have a problem with their own backbenchers, he writes, even as the pair of close friends stand on the verge of returning their party to power. Why are they so unloved, and in some cases even disliked, by Tory MPs?

Five Questions Blair Must Ask Inquiry

Excitement is building ahead of Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry on Friday. I’ll be live-blogging the event here from 10am, so try to look in if you can.

One thought before it all begins. In recent days there has been a mania for lists of “Questions that Blair MUST answer at the Iraq Inquiry”. But what questions should Blair ask the five-strong inquiry team cross-examining him?

1. Guys, do you mind if I sit down?

2. Am I getting paid for this?

3. Are you getting paid for this?

4. Nobody is going to prison, right?

5. Er… Anyone fancy a drink afterwards?

Tax Credits for the Taliban

A new slush fund of £310 million is being established to buy off elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The plan is at the heart of the discussions at the Afghan conference in London.

It’s a useful idea, and surely points the direction that Western strategy will take in the years and decades ahead. We’re headed for a situation, post-surge, in which the allies have far fewer troops on the ground. But they’ll use large wheelbarrows full of cash to pay favored warlords to guarantee what counts as peace in Afghanistan. This will mean fewer British and American deaths and might create some stability.

Gordon Brown, interviewed by the Beeb, said that the aim of the scheme should be to divide the Taliban. He’s right, if you can use filthy lucre to get enough of them to change their behavior and not consort with mass-murdering maniacs from Al Qaeda then it’s progress.

But I could sense the PM warming to this theme. If past form is anything to go by he’ll want to get right down into the details of how the cash for cooperation scheme will work. He’ll likely think “I know all about this doling out of taxpayers cash. Let me see all the related paperwork and I’ll sort it out.”

Give it a month and he’ll have transformed the slush fund into a highly complicated system of tax credits for Taliban warlords, probably run out of the Treasury in Whitehall.

Of course Bush and Blair share responsibility for continued violence in Iraq

One of the best features of John Rentoul’s marvelous blog is his “Questions to Which The Answer Is No”. A hack will ask a question in a column or blog post and John will cite it as Number X in his list of questions to which the answer is no.

He’s collected more than 200 hundred questions, such as: Will the PM opt for a shock Christmas election? No. Is Andy Burnham the next Labour leader or manager of Everton? No, and no. Is Vince Cable always right? No. I have myself featured in John’s list and I confess it was a proud moment when the news came through.

But what makes the list so compelling is that it is usually absolutely spot on. Only occasionally do think to yourself “hold on, the answer to that is actually yes”. I had just such an experience when John posted on Iraq on Wednesday.

Scott Brown’s Daughter: A Career Update

Scott Brown won a stunning victory for the Republicans in Massachusetts last week, making him and his family the new pin-ups for the anti-Obama right. No one looked more delighted than Ayla Brown, who has been trying — with very limited success until now — to get her singing career off the ground.

By happy coincidence, happy for Ayla that is, she has a new album out this week. Here’s the video for “Pick It Up.” Mainstream anti-Obama pop for a new generation? Or a bland piece of “American Idol”-style pap of a kind you hear everywhere these days? You decide.

In Defense of Special Advisers

Some of my best friends are, or have been at one point or another, special advisers to government ministers. Generally they’re not bad people, they just started hanging round with politicians, usually after university, got in with the wrong crowd of ministers and under peer pressure accepted a post as a SPAD because they thought they could handle it. Before they knew what was happening, they were locked in mortal combat with the departmental head of press over the precise wording of a pointless media release nobody reads about the minister’s visit to inspect a new geothermal energy facility in Leamington Spa.

Of course the daily life of the SPAD working for a government minister is not always like an episode of the comedy “The Thick of It,” although quite often it is for days on end. “My minister thought the ‘Thick of It’ was a documentary,” says one ex-aide who tells wonderful tales of Whitehall warfare and collective lunacy.

But SPADs — who are appointed from outside government to advise ministers — are under renewed attack. A report written by retired civil servants for something called the Better Government Initiative (how about a Less Government Initiative?) says that the number of SPADs should be reduced, as though they are horrible gray squirrels destroying the native habit of cuddly old red squirrels, the senior civil servants.

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