Lord Mandelson denied reports that he was 'high as a kite' yesterday, following an exuberant display at the Labour Party conference. The Business Secretary managed to inject life into an otherwise demoralised conference with a rousing speech that claimed that the Party could still win the next election and that promised undivided loyalty to Gordon Brown.
In an era when everyone assumes that politicians must be 'on something', and coming hot on the heels of Andrew Marr's questioning of the PM about the use of prescription drugs, it is hardly surprising that commentators assumed that Lord Mandelson's speech was the result of his taking 'happy pills'. The speech was an emotional roller-coaster that ranged from the frenzied to the coquettish, from the camp to the strident.
At times he was self-effacing and demure, meandering effortlessly through the past gripes and criticisms of his enemies. But eventually he was laying into the Conservatives in an impassioned and almost fanatical rant, claiming that Labour still had the ability to beat the Cameron crew. The Lord's temper was infectious. At the end of a speech that whipped the delegates into near hysteria, he won a standing ovation and received the adulation of many of his former critics.
Said an excited delegate, "On happy pills? Of course he is not on happy pills... If you had been resurrected from the dead for a third time, found that everyone was calling you 'The Lord' and realised that you could walk on water, you'd be high as a kite."
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And they said that power was the ultimate aphrodisiac
ReplyDeleteHe is certainly very good at saving his own skin
ReplyDeleteMaybe Brown will resign and Mandelson will be given a coronation.
But I don't see it myself somehow
Mandy was named in the Telegraph as the country's most influential left winger yesterday.
ReplyDeleteComing from a Conservative paper such as the DTs, what does that actually mean?
I think somehow that people are getting too much into the spirit of the conference and the delegates.
ReplyDeleteRapturous applause maybe... but are the grass roots Labour supporters quite as adoring of the Lord?
Apparently the conference halls in Brighton are only half full. Doesn't sound terribly febrile to me
ReplyDeleteMandelson's speech was just a rehash of his 'I'm a fighter, not a quitter tirade' after the 2005 election. It was camp, theatrical and totally self-obsessed.
ReplyDeletemaybe all politicians should all be on drugs - preferably mogadon
ReplyDeleteHe's probably just auditioning for a role in the next (Tory) government
ReplyDeleteSounded like Heseltine's last speech before the 1997 boot-out election
Apparently Brown is going to make a speech today referring to this terrible bullying of the disabled child that led to a double suicide.
ReplyDeleteBoy, the guy has a nerve. Labour has been in power for 12 years and he still thinks that he can deny Labour responsibility for the state of Law and Order???
Mandy's a neocon
ReplyDeleteWhen he called Osborne 'Boy George' did he mean it as a compliment?
ReplyDeleteIf none of it works out and Labour lose the election he'll probably angle for President of European Union. That or some big job in business
ReplyDeleteI think that it's all just one big job interview
Look at me...!
Dr Strangelove and how I learnt to love the Mandy...
ReplyDeleteMikeHill, maybe that is why he was so exuberant: He had just read that the Telegraph called him the number one leftwinger
ReplyDeleteHe's just reinforcing the fact that Brown has been knocked off the top slot.
ReplyDeleteAlso Ed Miliband is high up there - very interesting. He is a runner