Peter Mandelson

[nedflanders]

What's the chances of him getting punted for the chinese import fiasco and then Tony giving him a job again, evens?

[jake-the-peg]

Why is it a fiasco that the Chinese are trying to import more into Europe than they are permitted.

Surely it's a triumph of effective implementation of trade agreements.

Or is it only people that we should impose a quota on?

[january_bug]

Aaaaah - quotas.  Communism creeping in through the back door I feel. Let the free market rule! Hurrah!

Re Mandy's job.  Well Blair is on his way out anyway.  So even if he did give him a job, he'd probably lose it again, come Gordon's first shuffle.  To be honest, I hope he stays in Europe.  On the later news last night on BBC, Mandy had turned quite a strange colour in the footage (looked ok on C4 at 7pm) and frankly, it was a worrying colour.  So leave him in Europe I say.  I don't think he'll be back in British politics.  Kinnock and Patten haven't come back, and I don't think even the king of yoyo can come back AGAIN!

[jake-the-peg]

Free market

Right I'm off to sell smack to schoolkids then!

[january_bug]

Good luck.  You know that's not what I meant!  A free market in legal goods - that's the general principal I support.. although I accept that in such broad terms, the concept has its faults, and may certainly not be to everyone's political and economic tastes.  But Chinese clothes are not really the same as smack, and this is WAY off topic! :-)  Sorry Ned!

[nedflanders]

Ok Jan' Bug i'm just listening to you to.

[El D]

Why would they come back? Better money, more power, more corruption and less accountability in Europe. Bet he can't believe his luck.

[jno]

the problem seems to have been, at least partly, that huge stocks of imports were already on the way when the deal was signed, and the deal wasn't made retroactive to include them. So you might think that was Mandelson's fault. The various pressures are coming not so much from the Chinese, who are just fulfilling orders, as from the European retailers who are trying to import cheap goods, and the European manufacturers who are trying to stop them because they make the same things more expensively and risk being put out of business. The EU is stuck because it is basically a protectionist organisation that likes to pretend it's all in favour of free trade, and that's not attributable to any single individual such as Mandelson.

I don't think EU commissioners get removed for enything less than having hands in the till; but even if it did happen, as ned says, I'm sure Mandelson would end up the next chief justice. Unless Gordon Brown was in charge, in which case he'd become chief EU dogcatcher.

[Ding-Dong]

This bloke irritates the bejesus out of me - no matter what he does, he comes up smelling of roses - talk about having friends in high places!

He commits mortgage fraud - if you or I had done this we would be behind bars - and bounces back. Then he accepts blackmail over the passports for the Hindujas (yes he did - what he did is a rose by any other name). He then keeps his head down for a bit and lands a cushy European number - �250,000 a year plus expenses thank you very much.

This guy is the slimiest most odious halfwit lickspittle ever to take public office (where is the justice where Cooke and Mowlem die far too early, and yet this bloke goes on and prospers? - I'm not wishing him dead, it just seems a bit unfair).

And on to the Chinese thing - the quotas set up by Mandy were woefully inadequate, and were merely imposed to keep the inefficient French garment industry happy - where have we heard this before??? Yep, from another slimy specimen, Chirac - we want your rebate back, but absolutely no way will I agree to renegotiate the completely disproportionate amount of money my ineffiecient farmers get from the CAP.

How many more times does this truly horrible bloke get to mess things up before he sinks without trace???

Oh yes, and while all this is going going on, he's happily sitting watching the opera on a 'working holiday' with his lapdancing boyfriend - and by 'working holiday' I assume this is a euphamism for 'free' holiday.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 

[MargeB]

I think Mandelson should accept the fuss he has caused Tony and take it on the chin like a man.

[january_bug]

MargeB - you mean like a "slap deesel day", we could have a "slap mandy day"?

While we're there - a metaphorical slap for the fictional character Mandy in Hollyoaks too please!

Why am I not surprised that part of this problem is attributable to the French.  That country/nation has produced so many really good things, but goodness I've never heard of such a stubborn lot!!

[MargeB]

:-)

wot r u doing after ur masters?

[brachiopod]

Jake, I don't think ned passed judgement on the rights and wongs of import quotas, he merely, (and quite rightly), described its implementation (or not) as a fiasco.

To answer the question, though, I'd say about 3-1 on.