If you haven't already had a surfeit of Mandy coverage, do see the FT's interview today, in which the new Secretary of State for Business explains how he - and Gordon, and Alastair - have undergone remarkable personal transformation. Mandy is now, by his own account,"'mature" and "collegiate" as a result of his European experiences; Alastair has "regenerated" and is "a different person." Gordon has, amazingly, needed only a short break over the summer to achieve his own metamorphosis (must have been all those chats with Mandy): he has not just lost physical weight but so much baggage that he can now "see the wood for the trees." Well I never.
Try counting the first person pronouns in the interview, however, and you'll see that in one respect Mandy is the same old Peter. Contrary to Brown and co's feeble claims all weekend that personalities are irrelevant, the return of Mandelson to front line politics ensures that it will (up to an including the next fall from grace) be "all about me."
