Although Peter and John have been left to run "Britain plc" while the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, is away on holiday, it appears clouds are gathering on the horizon.
Backbenchers are restless, and Mr Mandelson, the Minister without Portfolio, has been branded "petulant" by a Tory party opinion poll, conducted at the weekend.
However, as he prepares to tell the Labour faithful this week that Mr Blair must show the same "rock-hard determination" employed by Mrs Margaret Thatcher in government, Mr Mandelson has informed his critics that their jibes are "toughening" him up for a possible role in the cabinet.
Provoked by the description of him as the most disliked MP, according to the Tories, Mr Mandelson played down his role in "minding the shop". The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, was running the country while he was "catching the flak", he stated.
As he laughed at speculation that he was seeking a Cabinet post, Mr Mandelson said yesterday: "I think I'm looking for a holiday and the moment the others get back I shall be straight off with my bucket and spade, and very happily too.
"If there is [a Cabinet shuffle] in a year and I've done my job well for the government and for the party and if I deserve to be promoted all well and good, otherwise no."
Since taking over the running of the country with Mr Prescott, Mr Mandelson has also managed to annoy the BBC. Barbed comments have been exchanged, and Mr Mandelson has been accused of conducting a vendetta against a BBC editor.
Labour, in turn, has accused the editor of "highly aggressive" behaviour after a difficult interview.
While a Labour Party source insisted last night Mr Mandelson would not be "blown off course by any snipes and sneers", the British government's problems appeared to be gathering pace.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the announcement that her marriage with the Foreign Secretary had ended, Mrs Margaret Cook linked Tory cuts in the NHS to the break-up.
Although Mrs Cook, a consultant haematologist at a Scottish hospital, reserved her criticism for the Tories, she warned Labour it was storing up problems for the NHS before new money was pledged next April.
"I probably should have spent more time in London with my husband," she told the Times. "In practice, however, this has hardly been possible over the past five years because of the demands of my profession," she added.
"The vicious financial stringencies imposed on the health service by the last government have prevented rational approaches to staffing, and many consultants, myself included, have carried excessive workloads with little hope of alleviation."