BRITAIN:Peter Mandelson's qualities are plain, but his ability to divide will trouble Labour loyalists, writes Frank Millar
"I'M GOBSMACKED." That was BBC political editor Nick Robinson's response to the news of Gordon Brown's extraordinary cabinet reshuffle.
And he wasn't alone. Westminster, like much of the Labour Party, was reeling at the return of the twice-resigned minister who features prominently in the history of the Blair/Brown wars that so frequently destabilised and debilitated "New Labour".
Loyal (and disappointed?) ministers such as Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward lined up to applaud the prime minister's wisdom in recruiting Peter Mandelson's undeniably "huge experience".
MPs on the left, meanwhile, reflected something of the horror that would be felt through huge swathes of a trade union movement that had been warming to the task of bolstering Brown's troubled leadership. "A backward step," was MP Ian Gibson's understated response, while would-be leadership challenger John McDonnell thought Mandelson's appointment as beefed-up business secretary would ruin the reshuffle and undermine the credibility of the government.
On the Conservative home website, meanwhile, there was some open rejoicing - with one contributor assuming Mandelson's elevation meant a change in title from "Prince" to "Lord of Darkness".
This brings us sharply to the point. There is much to be said about this appointment and argued in its favour. Nobody appeared more surprised than Mandelson's good friend, author and writer Robert Harris. He told the BBC his surprise was more that Brown had offered than that Mandelson had accepted the post. "I think he [Mandelson] felt he had to come back. If a prime minister offers you a job like that you have to do it."
Suggesting it was clearly an appointment in preparation for tough economic times ahead, Harris showed mature political understanding that people at the top sometimes end up with unlikely bedfellows. This was "a time for risk" he ventured, adding that not even Mandelson's worst enemy, and there is no shortage of potential titleholders, would deny that he had previously proven himself a very good minister.
The point of course is that, in terms of the New Labour experience in office over the past 11 years, Mandelson is no ordinary cabinet appointee. And "risky" was the word on most commentators' lips yesterday as they savoured the prospect.
There is no doubt Mandelson was sinned against and suffered an injustice when Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell dumped him as trade secretary in a panicky reaction to questions about passports for Indian businessmen who had donated generously to Labour. Former communications director Campbell accepts Mandelson's second resignation was a mistake, while it is doubtful the former prime minister can remember why he sacrificed his friend. Yet pride played a strong part in Mandelson's first resignation as Northern Ireland secretary after disclosures about his "home loan" arrangement with fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson.
In both ministries Mandelson demonstrated many of the qualities to which assorted pundits testified yesterday. He is unquestionably gifted with great analytical and strategic political skills. Yet he could hardly deny a record as a divisive character with a dangerous capacity to fascinate and obsess the media. He once acknowledged himself as a somewhat "exotic" bird among the political species. No less so after his stint as European commissioner, Mandelson may again find it difficult to avoid the attention of rivals among the lesser breeds. Nor, of course, will success or failure third time around hinge solely on Mandelson's performance.
What does Brown mean by this appointment? It is easy to grasp how we are intended to see the reshuffle. With the return also of veteran Margaret Beckett and loyalist Nick Brown as chief whip, the prime minister has elected for experience and added ballast and "bottom" to the cabinet line-up. Younger, ambitious ministers have been told to wait their turn.
And in the estimate of one leading Blairite, this new-look cabinet does give Brown a better chance of survival. "But do they get it?" he asks. "Do they understand that they have to put all their enmities aside?"
The source also makes plain that "they" includes the prime minister himself: "Will Gordon use them? Having brought them in, will he listen to them, abandon his own sectarian instincts and stop playing games?" On the face of it Brown has moved massively beyond the diminished tribal encampment of his own loyalists to reinstate the most hated of all the Blairites, so enabling Labour to reunite and carry the battle to David Cameron's Conservatives.
The alternative, too, will be argued: that this is a reshuffle born of prime ministerial weakness that leaves the fundamentals unchanged, and with a more potent potential enemy inside the gate should the cabinet decide Brown is not the man to take them to election victory.
Brown praised Mandelson's unrivalled experience as EU trade commissioner, saying serious people were needed for serious times. Business leaders, too, would undoubtedly be reassured that there would be no Labour "lurch to the left" in the face of the global economic crisis.
But what of Brown's powerful media backers, not least those editors who believed his promise to be the "change" candidate meant an end to the spin and presentational preoccupations of the Blair years? Downing Street will be waiting anxiously to discover how the opinion formers incline this morning. Will his embrace of Mandelson make them love Brown more?