Politician behind British leadership

The Third Man - Life at the heart of New Labour

by Peter Mandelson, HarperCollins, $39.99
Peter Mandelson's roller-coaster political career takes some beating - despite being sacked from the British Cabinet twice, he ended more than two decades in politics as the second-most powerful politician in the country.
He first found fame (and some infamy) as the British Labour Party's director of campaigns and communications in the 1980s and, with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he is regarded as one of the architects of that party's resurgence as New Labour in the 1990s.
His reputation for backroom political manoeuvres, and sometimes bullying approach, has made him one of the most polarising of British politicians.
Mandelson's autobiography is dominated by his relationship with Blair and Brown, and the most gripping parts of the book provide a stark, and sometimes scary, narrative of the dispute between Prime Minister Blair and Brown, his Chancellor of the Exchequer and eventual successor.
Brown is portrayed as spending his decade as Britain's finance minister festering over the fact that the younger Blair somehow seized the party leadership that in his view should have been his prize.
Brown's blinkered, single-minded and morose dealings with his colleagues seems to be right up there with the invasion of Iraq that damaged Blair's otherwise quite successful two-and-a-half terms in Downing St.
Somehow, Mandelson managed to maintain links with both politicians, although he makes it clear in the book that Brown is the more culpable of the parties in the dispute.
An indication of the depths of the rows that took place is the fact that Mandelson was sacked twice from the Cabinet by Blair (both times Brown's supporters seem to have played significant roles in his downfall). And yet when Brown found himself in deep political trouble as prime minister, he turned to Mandelson to try to get him out of the hole.
This was clearly a mission impossible, even for someone of Mandelson's political skills. After 13 years in power, New Labour had run its course - its demise hastened by Gordon Brown's inability to handle the top job, even though he had spent a decade preparing for it.
During his three short bursts as a Cabinet minister, Mandelson proved he could handle the Cabinet posts he was given, and between stints in the Cabinet he was a successful trade commissioner in the European Commission in Brussels.
This is a fascinating account of New Labour's 13 years in office. It is a lively read from a key player throughout those years, even though his role was often as an influential but shadowy backroom player.