COMMENT When Michael Howard made his final parliamentary appearance as leader of the UK opposition, his last question for the prime minister was unexpected. He reminded Tony Blair that he had once said he would not have truly succeeded until he had taught Labour to love Peter Mandelson. Could he tell the house what progress had been made? Amid much laughter, Mr Blair replied with mock gravity: “A lot done and a lot left to do.”
A lot is left to be done at the Elysée Palace, it would seem. Having twice served as a minister in Mr Blair’s cabinet, Mr Mandelson has been in Brussels as the European commissioner for trade since 2004, engaged in a programme of liberalisation. After the Irish electorate rejected the Lisbon treaty, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, was asked whether he thought José Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission, should be held responsible and replied: “We can’t blame Barroso for this. Choose another and a better one, choose a Mandelson for instance.”
