The lights have finally gone off for The Prince Of Darkness - Vladimir McTavish
Unlike in the bad old days, when politicians used to brazen out any scandal until it went away, we are well used to our leaders issuing grovelling public apologies when things go pear-shaped.
However, I don’t think I have ever heard any Prime Minister say “sorry” quite as often as Keir Starer did on Thursday, when apologising for his folly in appointing Lord Mandelson as Ambassador to Washington.
Also, there is no doubt the PM is genuinely sorry as the whole debacle may well end up costing him his own job.
Mandelson, meanwhile, has finally run out of positions to resign from. Having either resigned or been sacked on multiple occasions as a cabinet minister under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and having received his jotters for the Washington job from Starmer, it all looked over. Not quite. He has also now resigned from both the Labour Party and the House of Lords.
It takes some doing to have to quit from parliament’s upper chamber for lowering the tone, as The Lords is crammed full of very dodgy individuals.
It always has been, from Lord Lucan in the seventies to Baroness Mone in the present day, it has notoriously housed a number of thoroughly disreputable scoundrels.
Hardly surprising, given it’s a gravy train for failed politicians and friends of the outgoing Prime Minister, as well as convenient place to shunt embarrassing colleagues and party donors.
It seemed the perfect home to Lord Mandelson, who would now appear to be persona non grata even among this rogue’s gallery.
Aside from his role in the Epstein farrago, Mandelson has never been more than a stone’s throw away from scandal over the last 30 years. It really begs the question as to why he managed to rise so far in the first place.
His nickname of “The Price of Darkness” should have been a clue, but seemingly not. So why was he repeatedly given important jobs under three Labour leaders?
A common reason given during the past week is that he charmed his way to the top. That is not my personal experience of the man.
In another life many years ago, I actually worked for Peter Mandelson. As a student drop-out in the late seventies, I got a job working in a project helping young unemployed people get back into work. It was sponsored by the British Youth Council, of which Mandelson was chairman.
He used to fly up from London every now and then to deliver pep talks to our team. These were invariably cliche-ridden and patronising.
He came across to us as being pompous and self-satisfied, and didn’t really appear to have any interest in us or the work he was employing us to do. Let’s just say there was no charm apparent.
He displayed the demeanour, even back then, of a would-be career politico determined to climb the greasy pole no matter what the cost.
Well, he did manage to climb that greasy pole several times before slipping off just before reaching the top. He’s now counting that cost.
It’s tempting to speculate that, like most pantomime baddies, he could make another audacious comeback. But that seems highly unlikely.
This time, the lights have almost certainly gone off for The Prince Of Darkness.