Mandelson isn’t out of the woods yet
Dear Peter Mandelson,
No doubt you are trying to keep a low profile at the moment while George Osborne inadvertently deflects attention from your own meetings with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. The fact that you allegedly “dripped pure poison” about Gordon Brown at the dinner table with Osborne and Rothschild seems long-forgotten (at least, for now). Unfortunately, your personal battles are now being compounded by political difficulties as your plans to scrap improvements in flexible working arrangements has come under intense pressure.
Your thinking is evidently driven by the current economic climate. A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said last night that ”the government is determined to do all it can to help both families and employers in these tough economic times. The business benefits of flexible working are well documented. It can give both employers and employees mutual benefits, helping to keep businesses profitable and people in work. But it is only right that the government looks afresh at forthcoming regulations in light of the economic downturn. Absolutely no decisions have yet been made.” Sounds rather ominous, doesn’ it. Naturally, you have hidden away from the media at this time, knowing that curbing flexible working and giving preferential trading rates to Russian billionaires in your time as EU Trade Commissioner are both likely to get you into hot water. You may not have been found guilty of any wrongdoing yet in the latter case, but it find it wholly unsurprisingly that you “facilitated” a deal in 2004 which cut raw aluminium tariffs from 6% to 3%, making Oleg about £50 million in the process.
Your problems with withdrawing improvements in flexible working could still get worse. The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it was disappointed by the “old-fashioned” perspective that flexibility is a cost to business, when it should be seen as an opportunity to increase productivity. In all fairness, while they may be correct I’m not sure that a painful economic crisis is the best time to implement it as some small businesses will undoubtedly feel the pinch more than large organisations. A survey of more than 3,500 parents found 83% of fathers and 86% of mothers wanted to work flexibly, but more than two-thirds have not yet been able to achieve the working arrangements they would like. The government had planned to extend the right to request flexible working to parents with children up to 16, benefiting up to 4.5 million working mothers and fathers. Currently, only parents with children under six have the right. The initiative was even praised by Gordo at the Labour party conference last month, but now you are quietly starting to wind it back.
I wonder what will happen next in your eventful career. Within a few weeks of returning to the fold, you have been accused of yet more sleazy financial dealings and are risking a battle with the unions (not that the latter will necessarily affect someone with your attitude). Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, said: “If the government is supposed to be on the side of hard-working families, then this is a funny way of showing it.” No doubt many people share her opinion and at a time when Labour is starting to stabilise in the polls, the last thing they need is to upset the their union donors. Your review of the right to request flexible working was welcomed by the CBI but criticised by the TUC, and while I respect your motive as Secretary of State for Business I’m not sure Gordo will let you take the wind out of his sails.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
I remember being told that all the family friendly, flexible working policies wouldn’t place an extra burden on businesses. I rolled my eyes and watched as workmates with kids got all the advantages and us childless few became second-class workers picking up their slack.
Now it appears that all that was a lie; if flexible policies didn’t have a cost burden, why pull them off businesses now?
And this would be a really good piece… if only there were plans to scrap the flexible working proposals. Just because something appears in The Independent doesn’t make it right, you know.
Peter Mandelson has made it absolutely clear that whilst there have been proposals (chiefly from the business community) to him to delay the implementation, which he as Secretary of State has to consider, there are no ‘plans’ to delay implementation.
There you go… with one bound he is free! Now, back to Gideon, the Russian, the yacht and the donation…. much more fun!
Oh it’s very complex, Shaun.
You see, when Labour is imposing flexible working (etc), it is not a burden on business but is a great boon for workers. Equally, when Labour is deciding not to impose it, flexible working is not really a benefit to the workers but is a burden best avoided for business.
It’s like tax. When taxes go up, the public services that we use never seem to get any better and all we see are more diversity consultants (etc), but if anyone suggests that taxes be reduced, then Labour cries that it is inevitable that the axe will fall on front-line police, nurses, MRI scanners and so on.
Or when Mandelson has hospitality from a Russian and changes EU tariffs to suit his host, that is lost in the hue and cry about Osborne not accepting a donation that was not offered and would be illegal if it had been made (which it wasn’t).
Or when Peston pops up on Radio 4, it is right and proper for him to criticise Osborne, but totally wrong to inform listeners that Osborne has assisted in the SFO complaint involving Peston.
It’s all about symmetry, you see.
Sorry Bob but I got this story from the Guardian website this morning – have a look for yourself. You are right that nothing has been confirmed yet, but there is no question that the scrapping of these proposals is on the table.
Patently, well said. Their line has changed dramatically since party conference season.
“Their line has changed dramatically since party conference season.”
Well, that’s what happens when you try to run a government by polls and media, instead of by deeply-held conviction..
Convictions? Splutter!
Nobody’s been convicted of anything! No convictions at all! I don’t know what you’re suggesting but the Police tried for ages but still couldn’t come up with a Labour conviction of any sort…
What will happen next in his career? Well most likely he will be asked to run Labour’s general election campaign, which will be the most class based, dirty, spin-ridden political campaign in our history. But there is still a chance he will fall on his face again.
I think there is plenty of time for Mandelson to get caught up into another scandal. Politically savvy he may be, but surely he can’t go almost 18 months without doing something crooked.
Is this REALLY the morning for Tories to be talking about scandals…. hee hee!
Bob, someone not accepting dodgy donations is not a scandal.
A party accepting large donations for peerages in a well-documented sleaze show over many years and accepting donations from rich benefactors made in other people’s names in a clear breach of electoral rules – now THAT is what I call a scandal.
Scandals, Barmy Bobby Piper…?
You mean, like Tony Blair and F1/Ecclestone ?
Tee hee indeed..
The terrible legacy of Labour is it does things without a thought for the consequences.
if the financial crisis had come AFTER the silly flexi time had already been introduced then nothing could be done.
Labour make plans as if the sun is always shining,the taxed will always pay up,the public treasure chest is always overflowing and we can all sell each other Coffee for two and three quarters hours a day and live on Chinese imports and easy credit for ever.
Their meddling policies ALWAYS eventually have an unintended cost.
Full maternity rights.. great idea and the reason young women find it hard to get places in small business.
Unlimited immigration..great idea.. lots of new voters…new employees.. and the reason for overcrowded cities, and over run public services in areas which experienced massive sudden influxes of people, where government funding was slow too follow and problems were not even acknowledged for 8 years.
Managed immigration?Would that have been a better idea?
How’s that Lisbon treaty panning out for us? Abolition of border controls in the crime syndicate/terrorist age.. how’s that coming along..
Like SATs. Still good ? Still need them despite every single teacher demanding reforms to them since their introduction. Only takes a spectacular public failure for them to change their minds.
Why can’t Labour just provide government? Why do they feel compelled to b#gg#r about?
o/t ftse down as Gordon and Merv say its probable we will go into recession {yes..we know..we knew in June when we slipped into it}
I too have noticed the astonishing time lag between our economic data being published and Gordon Brown realising that we’re in trouble.
In PMQs just now, he said that the government still has the ability to borrow through difficult times, as if that is supposed to reassure us. Clearly he hasn’t learned the lessons of his own failures.
Maybe its all a cunning plan that Baldrick would be proud of…
By nationalising banks and borrowing money from banks in order to do it, with a bit of smoke and slight of hand, surely we then owe our debt to ourselves and can safely ignore it?
I excpect to see that circular argument deployed by the weekend!
Tories always do sleaze much sleazer than Labour in fact they are the experts. Cameron and Osborne have been so used to having the media up their ar*es now that they are in their faces they can’t cope. Hilarious.
“Tories always do sleaze much sleazer than Labour in fact they are the experts. Cameron and Osborne have been so used to having the media up their ar*es now that they are in their faces they can’t cope. Hilarious.”
Mel Blake // October 22, 2008 at 4:32 pm
And yet I struggle to recall a serving, or indeed previous, Conservative Prime Minister to be repeatedly questioned by the Police. My memory also fails to throw up examples of the Tory party handing back £1m following giving a massive, unique concession to aforementioned donor’s industry. Nor can I remember a Conservative government reusing former ministers after a short period in the wilderness for taking large undeclared loans… A few used fifties in a brown envelope for a parliamentary questions seems almost trivial by comparison with the wrongs I can’t remember.
Hmm, must’ve been Labour developing new ‘expertise’ in sleaze!
Back to the point…..
I co-own and run a small business circa 45 people.
I have 6 of those working flexibly for various reasons.
Of my people, roughly 50% are female.
The top team is OVER represented with women.
You see, its not the actual giving of flexibility that is the problem – that makes good sense usually – its all the bloody paperwork and time in proving that you have acted reasonably (which we do) in each case. Its the same with any legislation – most of the ideas are ok in principle, its the red tape and compliance that costs. And there is most certainly a cost in this extension.
So people, don’t pontificate about stuff you know nothing about.
Oh, and we’re not in some namby-pamby service business either – we are in manufacturing.
“You see, its not the actual giving of flexibility that is the problem – that makes good sense usually – its all the bloody paperwork and time in proving that you have acted reasonably (which we do) in each case. Its the same with any legislation – most of the ideas are ok in principle, its the red tape and compliance that costs.”
LOL yeah – when I got diagnosed with MS I was working as a web developer at a design/marketing firm. The design/dev teams worked upstairs. I then spent a couple of hours a week in meetings explaining why I was okay to walk up stairs when there was a handrail as the employer felt obligated to be seen to be box-ticking for the Disabilities Act. Not compelled enough to actually have valid public/employers liability insurance (the out of date certificate was displayed in the staff toiler entirely sans-irony) but that’s another story…
This has all got very messy. I’m visiting Corfu next year and I enjoy sailing, I wonder if I will cross paths with any of these leading characters.
Mammonson’s Legacy!
Mandelson’s New Labour politics will do to the Labour Party, what Sherman’s Centre For Policy Studies did to the Conservative Party–herald the beginning of the end of Christian idealism in British Politics.