Mandelson going native will not play well at home

London Briefing: It's not easy to feel sorry for Peter Mandelson, one of New Labour's least attractive founders. Twice forced to resign from the Cabinet amid allegations of shady dealings - loans of large amounts of cash from Labour grandees, passports for chums, that sort of thing - the loyalty shown by Tony Blair to his long-standing colleague is as admirable as it is uncharacteristic.

The words sleazy, bully, manipulator, master of spin and arrogant are quickly found in most profiles of this close friend of the prime minister.

Blair's constant support for Mandelson has most recently seen the ex-member for Hartlepool turn up in Brussels in one of the most high-profile of European Commission posts, taking responsibility for international trade.

Mandelson's track record as one of the founders of New Labour might have led some to believe that he would be an unwavering firm supporter of free-trade. An older generation of Labour politicians might have been quick to don protectionist clothes but the New lot are much more liberal in their economics. A quick scan of his CV might have given pause for thought, however.

The new EU Trade Commissioner, like many of that older generation, began his political life flirting with Marx. After studying at Oxford, Mandelson worked for the trade union movement and Lambeth County Council during the "loony left" years of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

With that kind of pedigree, we might think that our new trade commissioner is a most unlikely passionate free-trader. And, in a funny kind of way, we would be right - but not so much because of those early left-wing years. Ideology is unlikely to be playing much of a role in Mandelson's thinking these days. All of the evidence from recent years is that youthful idealism has been replaced by the idea that is central to New Labour: the exercise of power for its own sake with little regard for what you are supposed to do with it.

The row with China over textile quotas is a classic case in point.

On the one hand, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France try to protect several thousand textile jobs from imported Chinese garments. Lined up against these interests are the needs of 350 million consumers of those textiles: they pay more if they are made in France or any of the other EU countries, much less if they buy from China.

Simple really: horrible for the indigenous textile workers but as one-sided an argument as you could ever get. The demands of the many outweigh those of the few.

And, in case anyone had forgotten, the recent (January 1st) lifting of textile quotas with China had come after years - at least a decade - of tortuous negotiations.

Faced with the correct decision - stand up to the Club Med countries - Mandelson took what must have seemed like the line of least resistance: risk upsetting the Chinese and pander to the politicians closer to home.

The unworldly Trade Commissioner reckoned without the quick thinking of retailers. Businessmen spotted all this and quickly placed huge orders for immediate delivery, thinking that they could beat whatever quotas Mandelson was bound to concede. Those clothes (85 million bras and sweaters according to some reports) are still sitting in warehouses in EU ports pending ratification of this week's latest compromise.

Mandelson has made a very poor start and appears to have gone native within about five minutes of hitting Brussels.

Whether or not that appals Tony Blair is the fascinating question. Europe is now a dead issue in British politics because the sceptics have won all the arguments. A British Trade Commissioner making daft - but quintessentially European - decisions doesn't play at all well back home.

Chris Johns is an investment strategist with Collins Stewart. All opinions are personal.